Aldermen of the City of London: Billingsgate ward

BILLINGSGATE WARD.

Note A.—The Aldermen of Billingsgate, 1382.—According to the list of Aldermen chosen at the annual election of March, 1382, as given in Letter Book H, fo. 140, Exton was, as stated in the text, Alderman of Billingsgate. But at fo. 154 where his removal and the election of his successor, Maunfeld (elsewhere called Maghfeld), is recorded, the Ward is given as Queenhithe, and Dr. Sharpe ("London and the Kingdom," vol. I., p. 223) has accordingly, in noting the fact of Exton's removal assigned him to that ward, referring with his usual accuracy to the official records under his charge. It is, however, beyond doubt that there is an error on the part of the original scribe which had remained uncorrected for more than 500 years, inasmuch as Maunfeld's name appears as acting Alderman of Billingsgate in three separate entries in Hustings Roll 111 (28, 33, 60), at the dates September 24, October 16, November 9, 1382. This evidence (for which I am indebted to Dr. Sharpe, who, since I called his attention to the possibility of an error in his authority, has examined the point for me very carefully) is conclusive in itself, and it receives additional confirmation from the following considerations: (1) at fo. 140 and also H.R. 110, (131), under date, June 7, 1382, the name of the Alderman of Queenhithe is given as William Neuport, and it appears from ff. 58, 121 b, that he had represented that Ward in 1377 and 1380: (2) Exton had not represented any ward previously to 1382, but he was again elected for Billingsgate annually from 1385 to 1391 inclusive, and was succeeded in 1392 by Maghfeld, whose name does not, in the interim or subsequently, appear as Alderman of Queenhithe, or of any other ward than Billingsgate. These facts, had they stood alone, would have rendered it more probable that Queenhithe has by a clerical error been written for Billingsgate at fo. 154, than that the wards of Exton and Neuport have been interchanged at fo. 140.