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Thomas de Houghton: A Royal Carpenter of the Later Thirteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

A. J. Taylor
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Extract

Much attention has been paid in recent years to the careers and conditions of service of some of the foremost English royal masons of the later medieval period. The craftsmen in wood, however, are on the whole less well known, partly, perhaps, because their medium is less durable than the mason's and therefore relatively fewer outstanding examples of their work have survived to witness to their skill. Carpenters of the capacity of Hugh Herland and timber work of the scale and quality of Westminster Hall roof are exceptions that prove the rule. There is, however, no lack of documentary evidence, the great bulk of it still unpublished, for the activities of many royal carpenters in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But the details are scattered in works accounts and wardrobe books, Liberate and Memoranda rolls, and until these prolific sources are searched systematically for the almost limitless information they contain, the foundation for any authoritative general work on medieval English building craftsmen will scarcely have been laid. Such a search has yet to be undertaken. Meanwhile, the purpose of the present note is to illustrate the general problem and the nature of some of the available sources by collating facts about a single craftsman that have come to light more or less accidentally in the course of research directed to another objective.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 30 , Issue 1-2 , April 1950 , pp. 28 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1950

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References

page 28 note 1 P.R.O. Chancery Miscellanea 4/5 (Wardrobe Book, 18 Edw. I), f. 29v.: ‘xxvto die Julii anno presenti admissus fuit ad vadia Regis Magister Thomas de Houghton, Carpentarius, qui amodo percipiet per diem tam infra Curiam quam extra.iiij.d. ob. cum laboraverit in servicio Regis, et capiet per annum pro roba.xx.s. Et fuit ista ordinacio facta apud Langel' die predicto.’

page 29 note 1 P.R.O. Exchequer Accounts 468/2, mm. 3–7.

page 29 note 2 Ibid. 468/6, mm. 1 and 6:

‘Thome Carpentario in partem solucionis.xvj. marc' pro constructione stabuli ad mutas. Liij.s iiij.d.’

‘Item Eidem pro Latere Coquine ad emendacionem conuencionis sue per R. de Colebrok … iij.s. iiij.d.’

‘Thome Carpentario pro augmentacione stabuli apud mutas ultra primam conuencionem suam per R. de Colebrok. Lxvj.s. viij.d.’

page 29 note 3 ‘Item, Magistro Thome de Hocton', Carpentario, in partem solucionis pro factura Barrer' et cooperculi supra ymaginem Regine apud West- monasterium faciendi—Lx.s.’ (Accounts of the Executors of Eleanor of Castile in Manners and Household Expenses of England in the 13th and 15th Centuries (Roxburghe Club, 1841), p. 123Google Scholar, corrected from the photostat of the original account in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, 75. H); for Houghton's part in the erection of the queen's tomb and ancillary works, see also pp. 118, 121, 122, 125, 127, 134.

page 29 note 4 ‘Magister Thomas de Hoctone Carpentarius venit coram Baronibus ad scaccarium. xxiijo. die Octobris anno xxo. et inuenit Manucaptores subscriptos, qui presentes coram Thesaurario manuceperunt pro predicto Thome quod bene et fideliter deserviet Regi in officio Carpentarie et obediens erit preceptis Thesaurarii et aliorum superiorum suorum, et quod nulli falsitati vel pravitati consenciet, set si quam sciuerit earn Thesaurario dicet sine dilacione, videlicet Thomam de Carroun Carbonell' servientem Regis, Galfridum Cissorem Regis, Johannem le Conuers, Magistrum Johannem de Ledes, Jacobum de Eggemere hostiarium de scaccario, et Magistrum Robertum de Colebrok' Carpentarium. Et predictus Magister Thomas predicto die fecit sacramentum ad scaccarium coram predictis Baronibus ad omnia predicta facienda in forma predicta.’ (P.R.O. Exch. Memoranda Rolls, 20–1 Edw. I, L.T.R. 64, m. 3d., K.R. 66, m. 5d.). Most, possibly all, of the mainpernours ranked as king's sergeants, and it may be that we have here the record of Houghton's formal admission to that status as a sergeant-carpenter. Whether by virtue of this he held any land in sergeanty in addition to his money wage is unknown. John of Leeds (Kent) was a master mason (cf. Lethaby, Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen, pp. 174, 179) and John le Convers is generally mentioned in a works context (cf. Tout, Chapters, vol. ii, pp. 53 n. 3,163).

page 30 note 1 Exch. Misc. Books 202 (Wardrobe Book, 23 Edw. I), f. 40.

page 30 note 2 Pipe Roll no. 158, last m. but one.

page 30 note 3 Exch. Misc. Books 202, f. 52.

page 30 note 4 Cal. Close Rolls, 1288–96, p. 433.

page 30 note 5 Exch. Misc. Books 202, f. 46.

page 30 note 6 Exch. Accts. 369/11, f. 58.

page 30 note 7 Bain, Cal. Docts. Scotl. ii, p. 289.

page 30 note 8 Exch. Accts. 482/20 and 21. They were appointed on 12th February 1302: ‘et Mestre Thomas de Houghton et Mestre Adam de GJasham deusent estre Mestres de la Charpenterie au dit lieu’: ibid. 9/30, no. 15).

page 30 note 9 Stevenson, , Docts. illustr. of Hist, of Scotl., vol. ii, pp. 394–8Google Scholar; the date is incorrectly given as 1299.

page 30 note 10 That this was so is shown quite clearly by Exch. Accts. 482/21 and 9/30, no. 15.

page 30 note 11 Stevenson, op. cit. ii, p. 394.

page 31 note 1 Exch. Accts. 364/13, f. 98v.

page 31 note 2 B.M. Add. MS. 35293 (Wardrobe Book), f. 81.

page 31 note 3 Bain, , Cal. Docts. Scotl. ii, p. 384.Google Scholar

page 31 note 4 The masters were: Thomas de Houghton, Reginald Ingeniator, Robert de Bonekyl, Nicholas de Botheuill, Adam de Glasham, Stephen Ingeniator de Northampton, and Robert de Bedeford. Houghton heads the list on four out of the five occasions on which the names are given; on two other occasions payment is made ‘Magistro Thome de Houghton et.vj. sociis suis magistris carpentariis’. These seven, with their 80-odd employees, were the men on the spot; there were also 70 masons engaged in the siegeworks, led by Masters Giles de Thurmaston and Everard of Appleby. Besides all these a force of woodsmen administered by a Welsh friendly, Sir Owen de Montgomery, was busy throughout the siege making wicker-work (cliae) for mantlets and hurdles in Stirling forest; their numbers seldom dropped below 150, and reached a peak of 200 on 6th May (B.M. Add. MS. 8835 (Wardrobe Book, 32 Edw. I), ff. 86–95 passim.

page 31 note 5 B.M. Add. MS. 35293, f. 38v.

page 31 note 6 Ibid., f. 48v.

page 31 note 7 B.M. Add. MS. 8835, f. 39.

page 31 note 8 Exch. Accts. 11/15, m. 7; cf. Bain, Cal. Docts. Scotl. ii, p. 420.

page 31 note 9 B.M. Add. MS. 35293, f. 81.

page 32 note 1 Exch. Accts. 369/11 (Wardrobe Book, 34 Edw. I), f. 96.

page 32 note 2 Ibid., f. 96v.; cf. Bain, Cal. Docts. Scotl. ii, p. 490.

page 32 note 3 ‘… facez allower a taunt pur les gages frere Robert de Holmcoltram, Mestre Charpenter et engyneur, qui nous feismes mettre en le lieu Mestre Thomas de Hoghton, chescune sememe come le dit Thomas prist auaunt son partir de nostre seruice, et li facez aussint allouer taunt pur les gages Meistre Johan le Mazun, Mestre de son mestier de nos dites oueraignes, come le dit Mestre Thomas prist auaunt son partir de nostre seruice auauntdite …’—writ of 3rd May 1309 (Exch. K.R. Memoranda Rolls, no. 82, m. 36d.).

page 32 note 4 Exch. Accts. 369/11, f. 58.

page 32 note 5 Cal. Close Rolls, 1307–13, p. 11.

page 32 note 6 Ibid., p. 399.

page 32 note 7 A long list of carpenters in the royal service in 1316 makes no mention of Houghton (Society of Antiquaries MS. 120 (Wardrobe Book, 10Edw.II), ff. 59 and 63).

page 33 note 1 3rd edn. (1947), pp. 241–2.

page 33 note 2 e.g. Robert of Bedford, carpenter; Walter of Dunstable, carpenter; Adam, Henry, Hugh, Simon, Thomas, Walter, and William of Pavenham, masons; Adam, Simon, and Thomas of Felmersham, masons; Adam and John of Radwell, masons; Nicholas of Radwell, clerk of works.

page 33 note 3 Chancery Miscellanea, 22/3, no. 31, misread by Bain, Cal. Docts. Scotl., ii, no. 1306, as ‘Honitone’.

page 33 note 4 Manners and Household Expenses (Roxburghe Club, 1841), p. 121.Google Scholar

page 33 note 5 Dictionary of English Place-Names, p. 462.

page 33 note 6 Place-Names of Cambridgeshire, p. 182.