Family and Education

b. by 1479. ?m. Alice.3

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Hythe 1512-13, jurat from 1518, bailiff 1535-6; bailiff to Yarmouth 1522.4

Biography

Little has been discovered about John Hull beyond some details of his official career, but at different times between 1500 and 1514 he is found both exporting and importing different kinds of cloth, and exporting wool, at Hythe. He was first chosen by Hythe to be one of its delegation to the Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports in 1506. Although not chosen again for half-a-dozen years, he attended the assembly in 15I2 and 1513, when he was chamberlain of Hythe, and from 1518, when he became a jurat, until 1539 he was frequently a delegate. In 1522 he was deputed to go to Yarmouth to protect the interests of the Cinque Ports at the annual herring fair, and at Easter 1523 he was the only one of that four-man delegation to report to the Brotherhood on its mission, his three fellows being then in attendance at Parliament.5

Hull was himself returned to the next Parliament; unlike its precursor this was to last for more than six years, but of Hull’s part in its proceedings nothing is known. Both he and his fellow, Stephen Harry, were almost certainly re-elected to the brief Parliament of 1536: a list of Members of later compilation shows them as sitting in a Parliament which it does not date but which may be confidently ascribed to that year, when the King’s request for the return of the previous Members was complied with by several Cinque Ports and doubtless by Hythe as well. Hull may even have sat again in 1539, when the names of the Hythe Members are unknown. If he did, he perhaps interspersed his parliamentary duties with less reputable activities, for on 19 Sept. 1540, two months after the close of the third and final session, the Privy Council ordered the examination of John Hull of Hythe on a charge of clipping money. Thereafter, not surprisingly, a veil descends over the ex-Member’s life, raised only, it may be, for a final glimpse when in June 1560 the widow of John Hull of Hythe, who had died intestate, was granted administration of his property.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Add. 34150, f. 137; OR gives ‘Hall’.
• 2. Add. 34150, f. 138.
• 3. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Canterbury probate reg. C Act 5, f. 2.
• 4. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 148, 150, 185; Hythe chamberlains’ accts. 1483-1509, ff. 90 seq.; Arch. Cant. l. 109.
• 5. E122/35/14, 36/1; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 135, 167, 178, 180, 184 seq.
• 6. PPC, vii. 46; Canterbury probate reg. C Act 5, f. 2.