CUDDON, Peter II, of Dunwich, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

s. of Peter Cuddon I* and bro. of Robert I*. m. bef. Mar. 1404, Margaret, da. and coh. of Thomas Gardener of Gissing, Norf., 1s. Robert II*.

Offices Held

Tax collector, Suff. July 1413, Nov. 1419, Dec. 1421, Oct. 1422.

Biography

In January 1403 Cuddon paid a levy of 32s.6d. towards the first part of the 1402 subsidy. This was the largest amount on the Dunwich roll, and his name headed the list; clearly he was the wealthiest member of the community. Following his father’s lead, he was also establishing himself as one of the gentry of East Anglia: before 1404 he and his wife Margaret obtained from Robert Garneys, the sole surviving feoffee of her father’s property, an annuity of 20 marks from two manors in Gissing, and this they then sold to her kinsman, Robert Butvelyn, for £140 payable over a period of seven years. Cuddon was considered wealthy enough to be knighted, but in 1411 he chose to pay a fine rather than assume the rank.1

In December 1402 Cuddon had found sureties in Chancery, under pain of 100s., to keep the peace towards Edmund Berry, esquire, who made a similar agreement, though subject to the larger penalty of 100 marks. In the following May Sir Roger Swillington also found sureties to keep the peace towards Cuddon. The reasons for these bonds are not revealed, although Cuddon was subsequently, in April 1405, one of the Dunwich burgesses who were bound to Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal, to respect the settlement made between Swillington and the townsmen whereby the latter granted Swillington recovery of ‘Kyngesholme’ marsh, lying between the ‘old haven’ of Dunwich and the ‘new haven’ at Walberswick, together with foreshore rights long disputed between them.2

Cuddon’s mainpernors in 1402 had included William* and John Phelip* of Dennington, who were members of the households of the King and the prince of Wales, respectively. Peter and his brother, Robert Cuddon, were again associated with William Phelip in September 1407 when all three were together recipients of land and a windmill in the vicinity of Darsham; and in the following year all three again were party to a conveyance of property including marshland at Worlingham, Beccles and Eleigh. This last transaction was probably a purchase made on behalf of Peter Cuddon.3

Cuddon long maintained his family’s connexion with Dunwich. He was mentioned in the borough court rolls from 1407 onwards, occasionally witnessed deeds there, and attended the borough elections to the Parliaments of 1410 (when he himself was returned), 1411, 1413 (May), 1414 (Nov.), 1420, 1421 (May), I421 (Dec.), 1422 and 1423, quite often acting as mainpernor for those returned.4 Yet never, so far as is known, did he take up the duties of bailiff.

Cuddon died before April 1427, when his son Robert II was in possession of land which had once belonged to him.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: K.N. Houghton

Notes

  • 1. Add. Ch. 40704; CCR, 1402-5, pp. 314-15; F. Blomefield, Norf. i. 170-1; E159/188.
  • 2. CCR, 1402-5, pp. 128-9, 168; Add. Chs. 40672, 40673.
  • 3. CCR, 1405-9, p. 365; CP25(1)223/112/3.
  • 4. Add. Chs. 40674, 40706, 40714-15; C219/10/5, 6, 11/1, 4, 12/4-6, 13/1, 2.
  • 5. SC11/886.