Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Very little is known about this MP, who was described as a burgess of Grimsby, when, in February 1390, he and Walter Slotheby* were bound over in securities of £100 to keep the peace towards Sir Edmund Pierrepont. The quarrel may well have caused a more protracted dispute between Sir Edmund and the municipal authorities which led to a considerable outlay on their part in legal fees and expenses over the year ending at Michaelmas 1392. Like many local men, Hesilden earned his living from the trade in cured herring. In December 1390, for example, he hired a youth named Robert Perch to go to York for him and collect 15s.4d. from one of his customers, but instead Perch embarked upon ‘such robberies and other enormities’ there that he gravely damaged Hesilden’s commercial reputation and credit. The latter began an action for damages against Perch’s father at Grimsby borough court, but the jury felt that his claims were exaggerated.1

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

A John Hesilden was appointed in June 1379 as one of the five keepers of the sea who were to defend the coast around Scarborough in Yorkshire, but we have no means of telling what connexion, if any, existed between him and the MP (CPR, 1377-81, p. 355; RP, iii. 63, 391).

• 1. CCR, 1389-92, p. 151; South Humberside RO, 1/600; E. Gillett, Grimsby, 33.