Family and Education

b. by 1472. m. (1) Hawys; (2) Alice; (3) Catherine; at least 2s. inc. William 2da.3

Offices Held

Sheriff, Lincoln 1493-4, mayor 1501-2, 1511-12, 1524-5, 1535-6, alderman by 1511-d., j.p. by 1511-d.; commr. subsidy, Lincoln 1523, 1524, sewers, Lincs. 1531.4

Biography

Robert Alanson was a jeweller or goldsmith of Lincoln whose parentage is unknown and whose career remains obscure until 1511, when the beginning of his second mayoralty coincided with the opening of the earliest extant minute book of the corporation. It is this book which records the election on 3 Jan. 1512 of Alanson and the recorder, Richard Clerke, to Henry VIII’s second Parliament, for which the returns are lost. During Alanson’s absence at Westminster in February and March the common council appears not to have met, but on 4 Apr. he and Clerke reported to it ‘what that they have done at the Parliament’ and what soldiers the city was called upon to supply for the war with France. After attending two more sessions of this Parliament Alanson and Clerke were re-elected on 19 Jan. 1515 to its successor in compliance with the King’s demand for the return of the previous Members. In 1523 Alanson was one of the deputies appointed when the mayor, John Halton, was elected to succeed him in Parliament; thereafter his age probably ruled him out of consideration for further Membership. He was ‘of great age’ when elected mayor for the fourth time in 1535; because of that and his wife’s illness, and because his expenses were expected to be considerable, the common council allowed him a tun of wine or £4 in lieu. A year later he reciprocated by lending the city £28 of the £60 sent to its Members to procure an Act for its acquisition of monastic lands; the loan, which was secured on the plate of St. Mary’s guild, was partly repaid in lead in 1539.5

Alanson made his will on 31 July 1540. Describing himself as a jeweller of the parish of St. Lawrence (in the High Street near Clasketgate), he left bequests to the cathedral, to his parish church and various guilds, and to several married daughters, grandchildren and godchildren. One of the executors was his second son William, who was to sit for Lincoln in the Parliament of 1542. The will was first submitted for probate to the consistory court of Lincoln on 10 Sept. 1540, but was proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury on the following 17 Nov.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. M. Hofmann

Notes

• 1. Lincoln min. bk. 1511-42, f. 3v.
• 2. Ibid. f. 38v.
• 3. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Lincoln consist. ct. wills 1538-40, ff. 358 and v.
• 4. Associated Architectural Societies’ Reps. and Pprs. xxxix. 240-3; Lincoln min. bk. 1511-42, ff. 1, 10, 21v, 32v, 46v, 67, 86v, 101v; LP Hen. VIII, iii-v.
• 5. Lincoln min. bk. 1511-42, passim; J. W. F. Hill, Tudor and Stuart Lincoln, 19, 23, 27, 41.
• 6. Lincoln consist. ct. wills 1538-40, ff. 358 and v; PCC 16 Alenger.