Family and Education

bro. of Henry Chippenham* and prob. s. of Thomas I*. m. ?Elizabeth, da. of Hugh Harman of Wales, 2s. inc. John† 1da.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Hereford Oct. 1424-6.2

Biography

Chippenham’s family played a leading part in the affairs of the city of Hereford throughout the 15th century, having a share in several of its commercial activities. While Nicholas’s probable father, Thomas Chippenham I, had been a cloth manufacturer, and his brother Henry was a grocer, he himself set up in business as a mercer. When he was first returned to Parliament in December 1421, it was in association with his brother Henry. He attended the parliamentary elections held in the city in 1422, 1423, 1425 and 1427, having in the meantime, in 1426, during the second of two terms as bailiff, represented Hereford again, this time with Thomas Chippenham II, probably another brother. By 1436 Nicholas was holding from St. Guthlac’s priory, in addition to his several gardens in Grope Lane, a tenement called ‘Grynder’s Place’, two more in St. Thomas Street and two ‘shoppys apud Goodknavysynne’.3 He is not recorded thereafter. His son John was to be elected mayor of Hereford on no fewer than nine occasions between 1451 and 1490.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 753; Vis. Herefs. ed. Weaver, 19 (inaccurate in several respects).
• 2. CAD, i. C316; Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. (NLW 1955), no. 137.
• 3. KB27/653 m. 31d; C219/13/1-5; Trans. Woolhope Field Club, 1918, p. 38.
• 4. J. Duncumb, Herefs. i. 365; C219/15/6, 7, 16/1, 2, 5, 6.