Family and Education

b. by 1493, ?s. of Thomas Hogeson of York. m. Margaret, da. of Sir John Gilliot of York, at least 1s. 1da.2

Offices Held

Member, Corpus Christi guild, York 1514; member, merchant guild 1515, constable 1521-2, master 1531-2; senior chamberlain 1524-5, sheriff 1527-8, alderman 1528-48, mayor 1533-4; commr. subsidy 1540.3

Biography

John Hogeson was perhaps the son of Thomas Hogeson (d.1511), a York glover who was one of the city chamberlains in 1504-5. He entered the city’s merchant guild in 1515, and became free of York as a merchant in 1517-18. Little has come to light about his business activities beyond references to his importing herring through Hull (1518) and dealing in pepper (1525) and building stone (1543-4), but in 1524 he was assessed to the lay subsidy, as a parishioner of All Saints, Pavement, on £20 in goods, a large sum for one who had only just reached the chamberlainship. A rapidly acquired fortune would also help to account for his exceptional civic career, for he progressed through the city offices quickly and was one of the very few to pass from the shrievalty straight to the bench of aldermen without a spell on the junior council. His marriage to a daughter of Alderman Gilliot probably also played its part. He had first come into prominence in 1521 when he was accused of supporting Peter Jackson in a riot. One of Jackson’s daughters married a son of Gilliot and in 1531 Jackson named Hogeson a supervisor of his will and guardian of his son James.4

On 3 Feb. 1533 Hogeson became mayor of York, but he was sworn in ten days late when he returned from a visit to London. Much of his term was occupied in dealing with a dispute among the aldermen over the running of the York guild of SS. Christopher and George, in the course of which much dirty linen was washed in public and Hogeson was accused of abusing his position to make his relative, the town clerk Miles Newton, guild master. Eventually two of Hogeson’s enemies were dismissed as aldermen, and Hogeson led a deputation to Westminster to have the dismissals confirmed in Star Chamber. He was a trusted alderman, for after his mayoralty he was sent to London at least three times on civic business, but he was unpopular with some, perhaps because of the guild dispute, and in 1536 he and his colleague John North and their wives were attacked in slanderous bills written by another York merchant.5

Hogeson’s civic career culminated in his election to the Parliaments of 1539 and 1542. Nothing is known of his activity in the first of these except that he and his fellow-Member William Tancred (a brother-in-law of Miles Newton) took the opportunity to certify the Exchequer about fishgarths in the river near York. In the second, Hogeson and his fellow George Gale (a kinsman of Peter Jackson), besides occupying themselves with the fishgarths and various trading matters, were clearly instrumental in securing the Act (34 and 35 Hen. VIII, c.10) by which York was given a monopoly of coverlet making in Yorkshire. They were paid at York’s standard rate of 4s. a day, receiving £5 each before their departure for the first session together with £10 ‘towards the charges of divers suits and business of this city’ and 48s. for the liveries of their four servants. Later payments included half the costs of the aforementioned Act, the other half being paid by the coverlet weavers themselves. They returned from the last session on 1 Apr. 1544, four days after it had ended.6

Hogeson’s capture at the battle of Ancrum Moor (27 Feb. 1545) marked the end of his career. He was replaced as alderman in 1548 while he was still a prisoner and on the alleged ground of his resignation through poverty; on his release he was given a place in the garrison of Berwick by (Sir) Robert Bowes, warden of the east and middle marches and himself a former prisoner of the Scots. A letter from Bowes, which condemned Hogeson’s displacement ‘without default or his own consent’ as an act ‘otherwise than I think standeth either with good reason or the customs of every such noble city’, was delivered by Hogeson to the York council in September 1550 and helped to secure him a life annuity of £5, subject to the approval of those civic dignitaries, including George Gale, who had left the city to avoid an outbreak of plague. The date of Hogeson’s death has not been discovered but in March 1554 and later his widow received financial help from the city council.7

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: D. M. Palliser

Notes

• 1. York archs. B14, ff. 6, 7; E159/319, brev. ret. Mich. r. [1-2].
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. York Civic Recs. iv (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. cviii), 9, 10; Reg. Freemen, York, (Surtees Soc. scvi), 259.
• 3. Reg. Corpus Christi Guild, York (Surtees Soc. lvii), 183 and n; York archs. B10-19 passim.
• 4. York pub. lib. R.H. Skaife ms civic officials, ii. 375-6; York wills 8, f. 64; 9, ff. 324v, 325; 11, f. 1; Reg. Freemen, York, i. 239; Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Handel met Engeland, Schotland en Marques Ierlande, ed. Smit, i. 264; York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers (Surtees Soc. cxxix), 134, 323; York archs. B10, f. 122v; Fabric Rolls of York Minster (Surtees Soc. xxxv), 110; Yorks. Arch. Jnl. iv. 176; Yorks. St. Ch. Procs. i (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xli), 31.
• 5. York Civic Recs. iii (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. cvi), 149-65, 167; iv (ibid. cviii), 8-11, 66, 93; Yorks. St.Ch. Procs. ii (ibid. xlv), 17 seq.
• 6. York archs. B14, ff. 6, 7; B16, ff. 3, 44; B17, f. 14; York Civic Recs. iv. 72, 73, 75, 76, 88, 89, 91-93, 96, 97, 109.
• 7. VCH Yorks. (York), 141-2; Reg. Corpus Christi Guild, York, 183n. York Civic Recs. v (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. cx), 42-44, 103; York archs. B20, f. 52.