FRANKE, Edmund (by 1472-1523), of Hastings, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1472, s. of Edmund Franke of Hastings by Anne or Joan, da. of William Flower of Hastings. m. by 1493, Agnes, da. of John Benever of Hastings, at least 2s. inc. John.2

Offices Held

Bailiff to Yarmouth 1499, 1509, 1521, 1522; bailiff, Hastings 1502-3, 1508-9, 1509-10, 1521-2, jurat by 1522-d.3

Biography

Edmund Franke was a merchant who owned several shops in Hastings, including one outside the seagate: in June 1522 he paid customs on imported fish. He represented the town at the Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports on many occasions from 1494 until his death and was chosen four times by the Brotherhood as its bailiff to Yarmouth. His election to the Parliament of 1523 was both the apogee of his municipal career and the prelude to his death, for he barely survived its first session and was probably a victim of the plague which interrupted its work. By a will made in London on 21 May 1523, the last day of the session, and proved five days later Franke left £5 to the nuns of Syon to pray for his soul and 20s. to Robert Berdell, and divided his possessions between his wife, children and grandchildren. No record has been found of a by-election at Hastings.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament; Add. 34150, f. 136; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 185, 187.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from marriage. Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 116; HP ed. Wedgwood 1439-1509 (Biogs.), 355 conflates Franke with his father.
  • 3. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 124, 128-9, 141-5, 182-5.
  • 4. E122/35/11; PCC 8 Bodfelde.