Alan Rogers
Abramis Publishing 2012:
ISBN 9781845485503
360pp, £19.95
This work is the culmination of the author’s
long association with the study of the history
of Stamford. Despite its title, it is not a
biography of William Browne. The sources do
not permit that. Rather it is a distillation of
the key developments of the history of the
town focused around the activities of its most
prominent resident, known to us through his
foundation of Browne’s Hospital.
The task which Professor Rogers set himself
was not easy. Unfortunately, little remains of
the town’s official records from the period,
and the author has been painstaking in
tracking down relevant material from a
considerable number of archives. From this he
has produced what is likely to prove a
definitive reconstruction of the political,
social and economic history of fifteenth-
century Stamford. By this time the town had
declined somewhat from its economic position
in the earlier middle ages. However, it remained an important settlement
during much of the period under consideration not least because of its links to
the Yorkist dynasty, one of whose power bases was at nearby Fotheringhay.
Matters came to a head in 1450 and 1452 when, prior to the outbreak of the
Wars of the Roses, there were disturbances in the town in favour of the Duke of
York and against King Henry VI. Browne managed to distance himself from this
discontent, though he was shrewd enough to ensure that he kept clear of
trouble through the insurance policy of taking out a pardon.
Browne himself prospered as a result of a successful business career. Beginning
as a draper, his subsequent position as a significant wool exporter was
embodied in his membership of the Calais Staple, an organisation of some 250-
300 merchants, whose position was pivotal both to the economic wellbeing of
the country and to the royal finances. The Company funded military
expeditions to France and in 1466 it took over responsibility for paying directly
for the Crown’s garrison at Calais, then still in English hands. Browne clearly
took great pride in both his Stamford connections and in his membership of and
status within the Company, being described invariably in official documents as
either ‘merchant of Stamford’ or ‘merchant of the Calais Staple’. Through
exporting, property rentals and money lending Browne clearly became a person
of considerable influence, not only in Stamford but much further afield.
In fact, Browne had sought to restrict his local office holding. He had secured
an exemption from public office holding in 1439, presumably to enable him to
prioritise his business interests. Nevertheless, he did serve in an impressive
range of offices, not only in the town but also in the wider community:
alderman of the town, sheriff of both Lincolnshire and Rutland, a Rutland JP,
and a lay subsidy assessor. Moreover, he was adroit enough to have held office
through all of the monarchical regimes in the troubled 1480s. However, it is as
a public benefactor that he is still remembered in Stamford, through the
foundation and endowment of Browne’s Hospital, in reality an almshouse. In
addition, he contributed to the rebuilding of All Saints church and paid for the
hall of the Gild of St Katherine.
Professor Rogers details these matters with great skill and erudition,
interweaving the institutional with the personal wherever the sources permit.
He is particularly effective in reconstructing Browne’s familial relations,
especially his long and apparently happy marriage to Margaret. However, the
main significance of this book will be its significant contribution to the
economic and social history of England in the fifteenth century as a result of
the detailed examination of a wide range of often intractable sources.
Historians, both local and national, will be in his debt.
Mike Tillbrook
Noble Merchant: William Browne (c1410-1489) and Stamford in the
Fifteenth Century