SADELER, John

The admission of the saddler John Davy to the freedom of Wells is not recorded in the city’s convocation act books, but it clearly occurred not long before his first recorded election to civic office at Michaelmas 1441.3 The MP must be distinguished from another, younger, John Davy, who was admitted to the freedom in June 1453, having married the da. of a citizen, and who served as keeper of the streets in 1453-4 and 1463-4: Wells convocation act bk. 1450-1553, pp. 8, 9, 45. That year he was elected to the junior post of keeper of the streets, in which he served for two years, and over the following two decades he gradually worked his way up the civic hierarchy, successively holding the posts of warden of the shambles, churchwarden of the parish church of St. Cuthbert’s, constable of the peace and collector of the civic rents, before being elected master of Wells for the first time in 1463. When he assumed this post, he was one of the most experienced civic administrators Wells had known: he had held city office almost continuously since 1441 and in particular had served an unprecedented six successive terms as one of the constables between 1452 and 1458. He was serving in this post in June 1455 when a mandate arrived from the sheriff of Somerset to elect MPs for a Parliament summoned in the aftermath of the battle fought at St. Albans in the previous month. The sheriff’s precept was dated 20 June, but did not reach the Wells authorities until six days later, leaving them with little time to find representatives before the shire court (to which they were ordered to certify their choice) was due to meet on 30 June. It may thus have been under some degree of pressure that Sadeler agreed to travel to Westminster alongside Richard Vowell*, the son of a former master.4 Ibid. 15.

Otherwise, Sadeler’s career was largely unremarkable. Like other leading citizens he regularly arbitrated his neighbours’ disputes,5 Ibid. 1378-1450, p. 322; 1450-1553, pp. 21, 25, 27, 58. occasionally witnessed property transactions,6 HMC Wells, ii. 684; Reg. Bekynton, i. 1013, 1266. and periodically found sureties for the payment of the fines of men newly admitted to the freedom, including (in 1448) that of Thomas Mundy*.7 Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, p. 322; Wells City Chs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xlvi), 147-9, 152, 156. In March 1465 he and John Grype† were appointed to collect funds for the painting of the rood and the image of St. George in the parish church of St. Cuthbert,8 Wells convocation act bk. 1450-1553, p. 52. and in 1474 he was chosen to assess the contribution of the inhabitants of the High Street to a parliamentary tax.9 Ibid. 103. The extent of his property cannot be established for certain, but it included a barn and close, the reversion of which after the death of Agnes Hervy was granted to him and his children, Richard and Juliana, in December 1462.10 Ibid. 41. Few other details of his career have been discovered. In the spring of 1460 he was granted licence by the master and council to sue one William Wynter in the royal law courts, rather than before the master, while in 1474 his dispute with Thomas Iwode was put to the adjudication of arbiters including Walter Parys*.11 Ibid. 31, 98. Sadeler alias Davy’s son Richard was admitted to the freedom in 1477 (with his father and the latter’s one-time parliamentary colleague Richard Vowell standing surety), but the father lived on for some years and is last heard of in 1485, finding similar sureties for the enfranchisement of the chapman John Meggs.12 Ibid. 131; Wells City Chs. 156, 159.