Family and Education

b. by 1507, s. of Thomas Mainwaring of Chester. m. at least 1s.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Chester 1533-4, alderman by 1543-d., jt. royal murager and customer 1553-5, assessor of rate 1560-1; ?commr. relief, Cheshire 1550, goods of churches and fraternities, Chester 1553.2

Biography

The Mainwarings of Chester were descended from an illegitimate son in the senior branch of the family at Peover, Cheshire. Randall Mainwaring, who is to be distinguished from a kinsman and namesake of Kermincham, Cheshire, was admitted to the freedom of Chester in 1528 as a draper. He is found importing general goods in 1533-4 and iron and Spanish goods in the 1540s; in 1554 he was one of the merchant adventurers of Chester who sued out a pardon for having exported leather, calfskins and wheat to Spain without paying customs. Seven years later, being then in the Fleet prison, he was pardoned as a draper and alderman of Chester the outlawry incurred for non-appearance in the common pleas over a debt. In 1564 the bishop of Chester, in the last reference that has been found to Mainwaring, described him as unfavourable to the Elizabethan settlement.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. xviii), 164.
• 2. Chester RO, sheriff’s bk. 9, f. 158v; mayor’s bk. 1541-5, f. 3; 1544-5, f. 2; assembly bk. 1, f. 103; CPR, 1553, p. 360; R. H. Morris, Chester, 154.
• 3. Vis. Cheshire, 164, 166; LP Hen. VIII, xiii, add; CPR, 1553-4, p. 465; 1554-5, p. 38; 1558-60, p. 190; 1560-3, p. 372; Freemen, Chester (Lancs. and Cheshire rec. soc. li), 18; Chester RO, sheriff’s bk. 7B (customs entry bk.); 8, ff. 15, 42; 9, ff. 2-32, 95-102, 107-17; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 73.