PREEST, Nicholas

Like many of his fellow Southwark residents Preest practised a trade in London. Indeed, he may have been a son or other kinsman of a London chandler, William Preest, who in January 1436 made a gift of his goods and chattels to four individuals, including the later MP.1 Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 288. It was not long before Nicholas Preest was active as a grocer in London and in 1424-5 he was admitted to the livery of the craft, suggesting that he had established a reasonably successful business by this date.2 Archs. Grocers’ Co. ed. Kingdon, i. 156. Over the next few years he played an active part in the life of his guild, and between 1428 and 1448 he contributed to at least ten levies imposed by the guild wardens, paying sums ranging from 4s. 6d. to 33s. 4d.3 Ibid. 171, 182, 185, 199, 217, 231, 247; Guildhall Lib. London, Grocers’ Co. wardens’ accts., 11571/1, f. 2. He only appears to have presented one apprentice during his career (in 1431) and never served as a warden of the craft, yet there is no evidence that his business was in trouble in the 1430s. Indeed, the fine of 13s. 4d. imposed on him in 1437-9 ‘pur Wynchester feyre’, may indicate that he had begun to expand his commercial activities outside London.4 Archs. Grocers’ Co. i. 201; ii. 249. Certainly, it appears that he had – presumably commercial – contacts that extended beyond London and its immediate hinterland. Thus, the individuals whom he sued for a range of debts in the course of the 1440s included men as diverse as the landowners Reynold Cobham of Horley and Sir Edward Stradling (son-in-law of Southwark’s lord, Cardinal Beaufort), as well as James Fiennes*, the later Lord Saye and Sele, and various traders of rather lesser standing from Southwark and London.5 CP40/717, rot. 383; 740, rot. 433.

Preest invested some of his profits from trade in property in Southwark and the surrounding area. He evidently lived in the borough from at least 1428, when he was described as ‘of Southwark’ in the accounts of the London Grocers,6 Archs. Grocers’ Co. i. 175. and by the early 1450s he was tenant of Sir John Falstolf’s property, the ‘Boar’s Head’, there.7 A.R. Smith, ‘Sir John Fastolf’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1982), 167-72. At Easter 1433, the year in which he was returned to Parliament, he was associated with Thomas Haydock*, Thomas Couper and Adam Levelord* in the acquisition of a messuage and garden in the parish of St. Mary Newenton from Thomas and Margaret Caperon.8 CP25(1)/232/71/57. Four years later he and another London merchant living in the borough, Peter Saverey*, were among those appointed to levy and collect the tenth and fifteenth in Surrey. At other times, he witnessed his neighbours’ business transactions: thus, in November 1449 he joined with John Rokesley*, John Tyngleden* and Thomas Gybbes in a bond of £20 with the chamberlain of London, representing money owing to the son of Alexander Anne*.9 CCR, 1441-7, p. 463; Cal. Letter Bk. London, K, 324, 331; CPR, 1446-52, p. 352.

In view of these connexions, it is curious to find Preest drawn into the serious disturbances that swept the south of England in the summer of 1450. In the first days of July Jack Cade’s Kentish rebels entered Southwark and established themselves in the local inns, before forcing their way across London Bridge into the city itself. While the contemporary chronicles are replete with reports about the outrages committed by the rebels in the city, there is a suggestion that some of the men of Southwark joined with them in the collective pardon they procured on 7 July. On the same day, separate letters patent were granted to Preest and his wife, perhaps indicating that the grocer had taken a exceptional part. It is possible that it was in the course of the disturbances that Preest, along with two neighbours, the carpenter Walter Asshedoune and the saddler Richard Braybroke, became guilty of the offence of breaking into the close of Sir Thomas Lewknor*, with which the latter charged him later that year before the justices of common pleas.10 CP40/759, rot. 13d.

Perhaps Preest’s actions in 1450 had an ecomomic dimension, for by the early 1450s he was evidently in some financial difficulties. He owed money to the Grocers’ Company and may have experienced problems in recovering sums owed by others, including 50s. he claimed from a husbandman of Southampton in February 1453.11 Grocers’ Co. wardens’ accts., f. 9; CPR, 1452-61, p. 8. By October 1456 his plight was severe enough for him to be admitted as one of two almsmen of the Grocers’ Company then in receipt of the 12d. a week from the common box which was allocated to disadvantaged members; this was increased to 14d. in 1459-60. Preest was to remain dependent upon the charity of his fellow grocers for the rest of his life. He died in January 1462, having received payments for 15 weeks of the accounting year 1461-2.12 Grocers’ Co. wardens’ accts., ff. 55v, 110v; 11571/2, f. 14.