PADYHAM, Simon (by 1515-68 or later), of New Romney, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1515, 1st s. of John Padyham of New Romney by 1st w. m. suc. fa. Apr. 1553/July 1555.2

Offices Held

Chamberlain, New Romney 1552-3, jurat by 1558, bailiff 1561-2.3

Biography

Simon Padyham was probably a young man when in 1536 he exported oxen and sheep from New Romney to Boulogne. It was not until 1552 that he took any part in the government of Romney, of which his father was bailiff in 1544-5 and jurat thereafter. By his father’s will of 7 Apr. 1553, which he proved on 26 July 1555, he received the lease of one house, half the proceeds from the sale of another, and the residue of goods.4

Padyham was not Romney’s choice for the Parliament of March 1553. The town elected Richard Bunting and William Tadlowe but had them rejected by the lord warden, Sir Thomas Cheyne; of Cheyne’s nominees only Padyham is known. Romney paid him £3 6s.8d. for the 31-day Parliament, while putting on record that he was ‘appointed burgess by our lord warden contrary to our election’; Tadlowe and Bunting were compensated with 20s. apiece. Whatever moved Cheyne to interfere, the episode did not affect the relations between the men involved, for both Bunting and Padyham witnessed Tadlowe’s will three years later. Any ill will which Padyham incurred among others in the town was presumably dispelled by the spring of 1557 when he was one of those chosen by the combined Cinque Ports to go to London in defence of their liberties, and he was probably the town’s own choice to sit in the Parliament of the following year. He was paid £5 2s. for 51 days but whether this was for the first session which had lasted 47 days (the few extra days being allowed for travelling) or was for an incomplete attendance in both sessions (60 days) is not known.5

Only occasional references have been found to Padyham’s career under Elizabeth. In 1560 the Cinque Ports undertook to pay his costs in a private dispute with the archbishop of Canterbury over a matter of probate, his refusal to appear in the commissary’s court being seen as a vindication of the ports’ freedom from outside jurisdiction. It was probably his own interest in the basis of such privileges which led him to have a copy made in 1564 of the custumal of New Romney, in the translation prepared a few years earlier by the town clerk. At some time after August 1568 he was a plaintiff in the court of requests over a suit against him for debt in the sheriffs’ court of London. This is the last reference found to him.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

  • 1. Romney chamberlains’ accts. 1528-80, f. 80v.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Canterbury prob. reg. C26, ff. 96, 149.
  • 3. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent. Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 247, 256, 262.
  • 4. E122/36/13; Romney chamberlains’ accts. 1528-80, f. 57; Canterbury prob. reg. C26, f. 96.
  • 5. Romney chamberlains’ accts. 1528-80, ff. 80v, 113; Canterbury prob. reg. C26, f. 149; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 255.
  • 6. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 260; Arch. Cant. li. 189; Req.2/37/31.