Family and Education

Offices Held

Tax collector, Southwark Nov. 1388, May 1398, Dec. 1402, Mar. 1404, Dec. 1417.

Bailiff, Southwark by Mar. 1404.

Biography

Nothing is known of Segrave until March 1383, when he was pardoned for accidentally killing the servant of Nicholas Marchal of Southwark in the previous year. He may have had personal or commercial connexions with Lincoln, for in March 1385 and again in the following May he stood surety for two men being sued at the sessions there. He was, however, described on the first occasion as a resident of Southwark, where he had probably been living for some time, and where he did business as a baker. This is borne out by his appearance among the jurors summoned during the Michaelmas term of 1393 to attend an assize of novel diseissin regarding John Mucking’s* property in Southwark. Despite his apparently humble occupation, in July 1394 he was appointed to act as attorney in England for William Dodemore, a harpist, during the latter’s absence in Ireland on the King’s service. Two years later he became involved with Sir William Waleys* in litigation for the recovery of a debt of £150 owed to the latter; and in December 1397 he acted as a mainpernor in Chancery for Richard Wotton, a local man then being sued for trespass by Nicholas Carew*.2

That Segrave continued to enjoy considerable influence is clear from his appointment by March 1404 as bailiff of Southwark, with responsibility to the mayor and aldermen of London for the collection of its fee farm. His financial interests were not confined to the borough, for in November 1406 Nicholas Mymmes of Middlesex acknowledged a debt to him of £27, recoverable at the end of a period of two years, perhaps in return for a loan. In May 1412 Segrave began a suit against William Curson of Norfolk in the court of common pleas for a render of £27. Curson had originally bound himself by statute of the Staple of Westminster to hand over the money at Christmas 1406, but had still not honoured his bond by April 1414, when Segrave addressed a strenuous complaint to the relevant authorities. In the following year, Segrave served on the jury at another assize of novel diseissin, again to determine the ownership of certain holdings in Southwark. He may still have been alive in April 1426, for a Walter Segrave was then obliged to attend the possessory assizes in the City of London as one of five defendants in a case concerning the right to rents totalling £17 5s. from property in Thames Street. The verdict went in favour of the plaintiff, Katherine, widow of Sir John Culpepper, and the defendants were instructed to make good her losses.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

• 1. W. Prynne, Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva, iv. 1130.
• 2. CPR, 1381-5, p. 238; 1391-6, p. 450; CCR, 1381-5, pp. 619, 636; 1396-9, pp. 63, 234; JUST 1/1503, rot. 54.
• 3. CCR, 1405-9, p. 225; C241/207/27; Corporation of London RO, hcp 137, Monday aft. feast St. Luke the Evangelist, 14 Hen. IV; JUST 1/908/8; Cart. St. Bartholomew’s Hosp. ed. Kerling, no. 941.