Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Northampton, John de
NORTHAMPTON or COMBERTON, JOHN de (d. 1397), lord mayor of London, was a draper of high repute in the company and was elected alderman of the city 20 Aug. 1375 (Riley, Memorials of London, pp. 400, 404, 409); he was one of the sheriffs in 1377, was elected a member for the city in 1378 (Returns of Members, i. 200), and in 1380 was a commissioner for building a tower on the bank of the Thames for the protection of the shipping. He was elected to the mayoralty in 1381. He was one of the most prominent supporters of Wiclif in London, was no doubt connected with the interruption of Wiclif's trial at Lambeth in 1378, and with the interference of the citizens with the trial of John Aston in 1382 (Walsingham, i. 356, ii. 65). The Londoners were at this time divided into two parties [see under Brembre, Sir Nicholas], and Northampton was the head of John of Gaunt's faction, while as regards municipal politics, which since 1376 had, owing to a change of procedure, run very high (Liber Albus, i. 41), he appears to have been leader of the party which sought to gain the favour of the populace and the members of the smaller companies, and to depress the great victualling companies. Relying on the support of his party, and specially of the Duke of Lancaster, he encouraged the citizens to set at nought the jurisdiction of their bishop by taking into their own hands the punishment of breaches of chastity. They imprisoned women guilty of these offences in the prison called the Tun on Cornhill, shaved their heads, and paraded them publicly with trumpets and pipes playing before them, and dealt in like fashion with their paramours, declaring that the prelates were negligent and venal, and that they would purify their city themselves. He was a bitter enemy of the London fishmongers, who were upheld by Sir Nicholas Brembre and Sir John Philipot [q. v.], both of the Grocers' Company, and Nicholas Exton of the Fishmongers' Company. He obtained from the king, Richard II, the extinction of their monopoly, prevented them from selling in the country, compelling them to sell in one market at a price fixed by the mayor, and with other citizens presented a petition to the king on which was founded an act of parliament that no fishmonger or other victualler should be eligible for the mayoralty or other judicial office (Statutes at Large, ii. 257). By these measures he brought the company so low that he is said to have forced the fishmongers to declare that they were unworthy to be ranked among the crafts or mysteries of the city. As his proceedings, while raising the price of fish in the country, lowered it in London, they were highly popular among the poorer class (Walsingham, ii. 66). He is said to have attempted to depress others of the companies, but to have been checked. Nor did he accomplish so much without meeting with violent opposition. On one occasion he was insulted in his court, and on another a fishmonger was committed to prison for speaking against him (Memorials, pp. 462, 472). So long, however, as he was mayor, he made his position good, and forced Sir John Philipot to resign his aldermanry, because he was allied with his enemies. In 1383 he was succeeded in the mayoralty by Brembre, whose election was carried by the strong hand of certain crafts, and with the approval and perhaps help of the king. Northampton's work was at once undone, the fishmongers regained their privileges, and the greater companies triumphed.
He did not submit quietly to his defeat; the party that he led was numerous and excited, there was talk of making him mayor in spite of his enemies, and the supporters of Brembre believed that the new lord mayor's life was threatened. Northampton was joined by a large number of men when he walked the streets, and seems to have allied himself to the anti-court party among the nobles; for the dispute in the city had a strong bearing on the affairs of the kingdom. In February 1384 Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, dined with him, and after dinner asked him to walk with him to the Greyfriars' church, for that day was the anniversary of his brother, the late earl, who was buried there. Northampton went with the earl, and was, it is said, accompanied by four hundred men. The lord mayor met him, and asked why he went so attended. On his answering that the men came with him because it pleased them, Brembre arrested him, and he was sent down to Corfe Castle, and there imprisoned on a charge of sedition. One of his most active adherents, a member of the Shoemakers' Company, was beheaded for insurrection. His clerk, Thomas Usk, was arrested by the sheriffs in July, and accused him of many crimes, but it was thought that he was suborned by Brembre (Chronicon Angliæ, p. 360; Polychronicon, App. ix. 45). He was brought before King Richard and the council at Reading, and denied all Usk's accusations. When Richard was about to sentence him to the forfeiture of his goods, leaving him one hundred marks a year for his maintenance, he said that the king should not condemn him in the absence of his lord the Duke of Lancaster. On this the king fell into a rage, and declared that he would have him hanged forthwith. He was appeased by the queen, and Northampton was sent back to Corfe, whence in September he was brought up to London and imprisoned in the Tower. He was tried there, and sentenced either to the wager of battle, or to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was commuted; he was to be imprisoned for life, his goods were to be confiscated, and he was not to come within a hundred miles of London (WALSINGHAM, ii. 116). He was imprisoned in Tintagel Castle. John of Gaunt interceded for him in 1386, but his enemies in London opposed his release, and he was kept in prison. In April 1387 he was released, and his goods were restored to him at the instance, it was believed, of the Duke of Ireland [see Vere, Robert de, Earl of Oxford, (1362–1393)], who probably desired to conciliate Northampton's party in the city.
A petition presented in the parliament of this year by the cordwainers and other companies complaining that the then Lord Mayor Exton had caused a book of good customs, called the ‘Jubilee,’ to be burnt, marks the revival of the party in the city (Rolls of Parliament, iii. 227). A John de Northampton, probably the late lord mayor, was returned as member for Southwark to the ‘Merciless parliament’ which met on 3 Feb. 1388. Northampton's friends were in the ascendant. Brembre was executed the same month, and in March Usk was beheaded, persisting in his charges against his former master. Richard allowed Northampton to enter London, though for a while he would not consent to his residing there. In 1390, however, this too was granted, on a petition of the citizens. A proclamation was made by the lord mayor and aldermen in 1391 that no one should thenceforward utter his opinion concerning Sir Nicholas Brembre, or John of Northampton, formerly mayor, men of great power and estate (Memorials, p. 526). Northampton was buried in St. Alphage's Church, Cripplegate. His arms are given by Stow (u.s.p. 556).
[Walsingham's Hist. Angl. ii. 65, 66, 71, 110, 111, 116 (Rolls Ser.); Chron. Angliæ, pp. 358, 360 (Rolls Ser.); Vita Ric. II, pp. 48, 49 (ed. Hearne); Chron. in cont. of Higden's Polychronicon, ix. (Rolls Ser.); Liber Albus ap. Munimenta Gildhallæ Lond. i. 41, iii. 423 seqq. (Rolls Ser.); Riley's Memorials of London; Maitland's Hist. of London, p. 142; Stow's Survey of London, pp. 305, 556, ed. 1633; Stubbs's Const. Hist. ii. 446, 467, iii. 575.]