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CASEBOURNE, Thomas, of Hythe, Kent.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Family and Education
prob. s. of Thomas Casebourne of Hythe by his w. Agnes.1
Offices Held
Jurat, Hythe Feb. 1399-1400, 1402-3, 1405-6, 1408-9, 1410-11, 1412-13.2
Cinque Ports’ bailiff at Yarmouth Sept.-Nov. 1412.3
Biography
Casebourne’s accounts for maltolts at Hythe show that he traded in livestock, beer, corn and wood. In 1412-13 his land there yielded 5s. in rent, and he also owned a shop and a mill. His chattels were valued at £10 that year, but at only half that amount in 1419-20.4
In 1412-13 Casebourne acted as one of the executors of Ralph Long of Hythe, under whose will he gave 6s.8d. to St. Leonard’s church. He was kept busy on the town’s business, too. In March 1412 he visited Dover to speak with Hythe’s counsel about a lawsuit which the abbot of St. Radegund’s had commenced against a fellow townsman (a matter which necessitated several more trips to Dover before it was settled), and also went to Canterbury with a present of a porpoise for Archbishop Arundel. He was a member of the delegation which in May discussed with the archbishop’s steward at Dymchurch the possibility of using water from Romney marsh to help construct a new harbour for Hythe. In July he attended a special Brodhull held at New Romney. He received 53s. as his expenses for appearing at Henry V’s coronation in April 1413 as one of the barons sent from the Cinque Ports to bear the royal canopy; and a month later he served Hythe at Henry’s first Parliament, for which he was paid wages of 55s. for 22 days’ attendance.5 Casebourne then retired from local government, but he was still living in February 1424, when associated with Alexander Appleford* in the acquisition of a tenement near the market-place in Hythe.6