Sir Henry Frowick of Gunnersbury, Middlesex ¹

  General Notes:

FROWICK (FROWYK), Henry (1390-1459) ; ald. of London, mercer⁷ and of South Mimms, Mdsx.,⁸ esq. M.P. London 1422, 1423-4, 1437, 1447, 1450-1.

S. of John Frowick⁹ by Jane; m. Isabel (d. 1465) widow of William Otes, mercer, by whom Frowick had Sir Thomas and Sir Henry (qq.v.).

Auditor, 1421-4, 1429-31; alderman, July 1424-57; master of the Mercers' Co., 1426, 1430, 1435, 1442, 1449; sheriff, 1427-8; mayor, 1435-6, 1444-5; elector, London, 1442, 1449 (1), 1449 (2), 1453, 1455; elector, Mdsx., 1450; on all London comns., 1429-52, and a few Mdsx. comns.¹⁰ (including the Lancastrian comn. of array of Dec. 1459); ambassador to the Hanse Towns, Nov. 1436;¹¹ specially lic. to buy merchandise at Southampton, Apr. 1437;¹² apptd. Justice for the merchants of Almaigne resident in London, Nov. 1442.¹³ They had petitioned Parlt. in 1426 that he or one of two other aldermen should be apptd. their Justice.¹⁴ When elected to the Bury Parlt. (1447) he said that if he had "focale sufficiens hospicia convenientia" he was willing to assume the burden, but not otherwise.¹⁵

D. 1459; will, dat. 8 Apr. 1459, pr. 8 Mar. 1460.¹⁶

Footnotes:
7 Pardon Roll, 6 Nov. 1446, m.21.
8 Cat. Anc. Deeds, vi. 291.
9 See Leynham and Say pedigree in Misc. Gen. et Herald 5th Series, Vol. VI.
10 viz., 3 Feb. 1453, 16 Sept. 1457, 17 Dec. 1457.
11 Foedera, V. i. 35.
12 Jointly with one John Abbott, mercer of London; (Cal. Pat. Rolls (1437), 45).
13 ibid. (1442), 133.
14 Rot. Parl. iv. 303. .
15 Evidently suspicious of the hotel accommodation at Bury (Jor. 4, fo. 1556 - per Miss Jay).
l6 (P.C.C., 20 Stokton.) To be bur. in St. Thomas Martyr, Acon.; bequests to wife; to s. (Sir) Thomas; to Roger Appleton (q.v.) the yr. and Elizabeth his wife "my da."; to Isabel, da. of (Sir) Thomas, for her marriage, and to nephew (Sir) Thomas Charlton (the Speaker, q.v.). At some period he and Adam Fraunceys endowed a chantry near the Guildhall. Letter Book L. 53.

[History of Parliament]

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1438 Thomas Frowyk of Middlesex, esquire, granted to Henry his brother, citizen, alderman, and mercer, two tenements, one in St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street between that church to S. and the tenement in which Richard Lovelas, mercer, lived to N., and the other in Honey Lane, between the cemetery of All Hallows Honey Lane to E. and the church of St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street to W. Henry Frowyk, mercer and alderman, died before 1460; his son Sir Thomas de Frowyk, kt., died before 1485, and in 1492 the latter's widow Dame Jane and his son and heir Henry leased the messuage with shop, cellars, solars, etc. in All Hallows Honey Lane, late occupied by Thomas Orewell, mercer, to John Hawe, citizen and mercer, for 30 years. The rent was £3, payable to Jane during her lifetime and thereafter to Henry; the landlords were to repair. Sir Henry Frowyk died in 1505, having granted the tenements in Milk Street and Honey Lane to John Legh of Stockwell, Edmund Denny, and Ralph Legh, to hold to the use of himself and his wife Margaret and their heirs. His heir was his son Thomas, aged 14 in 1508. The tenant at about this time was Robert Imber, mercer. By c. 1518 the tenement had passed to Henry Frowyk son of Sir Henry Frowyk. In 1518-19 he sold his 2 tenements, one in All Hallows Honey Lane and the other in St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street, adjacent to the church, to Sir Thomas Exmewe, kt., citizen and alderman, on behalf of the parish of St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street, for £140 (paid by the parish).

By his will of 1459, proved 1460, relating only to the £1 rent from a property in Soper Lane, he left it to the master and brothers of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acre, for ever, for an obit. The hospital received the rent until its dissolution in 1538, when the rent passed to the Crown.

Henry Frowyk by his will drawn up in 1453, left money for educating two choristers, at Westminster school.

Mercer, Alderman of the City for many years,(1425, 1426, 1455)

MP for one parliament and twice Lord Mayor of London (in 1435/6 and 1444/ 5: on the latter occasion he was elected in the teeth of the King having tried to pressurise the Corporation to elect someone else). He was instrumental in rebuilding the Guild Hall and his name is on a dedication stone concealed in the foundations.

Master of the Mercers Company 1425.

Executor of John Coventry. ¹

  Research Notes:

Note that the above disagrees about the parents of Henry with most other sources, naming them as John and Jane instead of Henry and Alice. The article cites Leynham and Say, Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica - ser. 5, v. 6 (1926-1928).

Thrupp, writing after that article, refers to him as the second son of Henry and Alice Cornwall (or Cornhull etc). Mentions he was apprenticed to John Otley, mercer, and free either 1411 or 1417, because Otley actually had two apprentices with the same name. Like the parliamentary history says that his wife Isabel is the daughter of William Otes, mercer. She was descibred as a silkwoman in her husband's will. Thrupp refers to a marriage being 1422 citing "L. Bk., I, fol. 279".

Thrupp and HOP also disagree about the relationship between his wife Isabel Otes and William Otes. Thrupp says Isabel is daughter to William. HOP says widow.

  Events

• Manorial Estate, 1422, Gunnersbury Manor, Gunnersbury, Hounslow, London, W4, GB. ² GUNNERSBURY manor was held of the bishop of London in 1378 for fealty, suit of court, and rents, and included 228 a. land and £1 7s. rent from tenants. (fn. 77) The manor may have been the ½ carucate and 2 marks rent in which Maud, widow of Lawrence del Brok, claimed dower against Joan of Somery in the late 13th century. (fn. 78) In 1347 John of Ceppeham granted two-thirds of the manor to John de Bray and Joan his wife for life, with the reversion of the third held in dower by Maud, widow of Thomas of Gloucester. (fn. 79) John of Ceppeham was dead by 1364, when his son John granted the reversion to Geoffrey Scrope. (fn. 80) Lands including Gunnersbury, late of John of Northwich, goldsmith, were conveyed in 1373 by feoffees to those of Edward III's mistress Alice Perrers. (fn. 81) Alice forfeited them but her husband William of Windsor was granted Gunnersbury in 1380, to hold to the use of her and her heirs. (fn. 82) It was held by Thomas Charlton and Alice his wife, apparently in her right, in 1390, when it was settled in trust, (fn. 83) presumably to Alice's use. The estate was held by her son Henry Frowyk in 1422 (fn. 84) and remained with the Frowyks until the death of another Henry Frowyk in 1520, when it was allotted to his sister Elizabeth, wife of the judge Sir John Spelman, (fn. 85) descending in the Spelman family with Flambards in Harrow. (fn. 86)

Footnotes:
77. Cal. Inq. Misc. iv, p. 12; Guildhall MSS. 11766, f. 9; 10312/87, rot. 87.
78. P.R.O., CP 40/10, rot. 20.
79. Ibid. CP 25(1)/150/62/236.
80. Cal. Close, 1364-8, 61.
81. Ibid. 1369-74, 535-6; see also P.R.O., E 159/191, recorda Hil. 2 Hen. V, rot. 1 and d.
82. Cal. Pat. 1377-81, 503.
83. P.R.O., CP 25(1)/151/79/106.
84. Guildhall MS. 11766, f. 9.
85. Ibid. 10312/87, rot. 18; P.R.O., CP 25(2)/51/367/22 Hen. VIII; above, Acton, manors and other est.
86. V.C.H. Mdx. iv. 209.

• Occupation, 1422. MP - Westminster

• Occupation, 1428. Sheriff of London

• Occupation: Lord Mayor of London, 1435.

• Occupation, 1436. MP Cambridge

• Occupation: Lord Mayor of London, 1444.

• Occupation, 1446. MP - Cambridge

• Occupation, 1450. MP

• Will, 8 Apr 1459. ¹

• Probate, 8 Mar 1460. ¹

Henry married Isabel Bally between 1420 and 1421.¹ (Isabel Bally was born about 1399, died between 3 and 8 Aug 1465 ³ and was buried in St. Thomas Martyr, London, GB.)