Family and Education

b. by 1489, s. of John Erlich of Cambridge by Alice or Agnes. m. Alice.2

Offices Held

J.p. Cambridge 1510-?d.; alderman, bailiff, mayor 1511-12; commr. gaol delivery 1512. 1514, subsidy 1512, 1514, 1515.3

Biography

At least two and perhaps three men named John Erlich lived in Cambridge in the early 16th century. The one who is presumed to have been the Member made his will in March 1516 and died before the following 14 Oct., leaving a legacy to his brother ‘Master John Erliche’, perhaps the King’s College notary who lived until 1551. Although no children are mentioned in the will, it is sometimes assumed that the notary was the testator’s son, in which case there must have been a third John Erlich. That the testator was also the Member is borne out by his bequest of 6s.8d. a year to pay for ‘a junket or recreation’ for the borough officials who attended his funeral mass, and by the disappearance of his name from the borough records after 1516. The sometime Member was a wealthy draper and the largest contributor to the subsidy of 1512 among those of Cambridge whose names have survived. Elected to the Parliament of that year during his mayoralty, he and his fellow-Member John Bury were probably returned again in 1515 in accordance with the King’s request to that effect. He was still alive on 20 Aug. 1516, when he was party to an arbitration award in a dispute between the borough and Barnwell priory. He died possessed of three booths in Cambridge, and of land at Barnwell, Fulbourn and Hinton, and he was buried in Great St. Mary’s church, Cambridge, where he founded an obit, as his father had done. After a number of charitable gifts and the legacies mentioned, Erlich left the residue of his property to his wife, who as the sole executrix proved the will on 14 Oct. 1516.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: D. F. Coros

Notes

• 1. Cambridge Bor. Docs. ed. Palmer, i. 48.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. C. H. Cooper, Cambridge Memorials, iii. 302; PCC 23 Holder.
• 3. Cambridge Bor. Docs. 150; F. Blomefield, Coll. Cant. 224; LP Hen. VIII, i; Statutes, iii. 81, 114, 170.
• 4. PCC 23 Holder; Cambridge Bor. Docs. i. 113; Cooper, Cambridge Annals, i. 298.