BROMHULL

(John, of Little Torrington, North Devon) Recognisance of debt, in Latin with transcription and translation,

      saying he has “altogether renounced for me and my heirs for ever to Stephen Phelip of Great Torynton [Torrington] his heirs and assigns all my right and claim ... in all the lands and tenements commons woods meadows pastures and all other their appurtenances within the demesne of Little Torynton lying in the hundred of Shebbear that will fall to my inheritance there after the death of Nicholas Bromhull my father”, and that he and his heirs “are excluded by these presents from all action right and claim in the same for ever ... As Witness  William CANYNGES  [the elder, M.P., d. 1396] then  mayor of Bristol  Henry Vyel[l] deputy John Seymour Thomas Sampson Bailiffs Walter Derby Walter Frompton [sic, for Frampton] Elias Spelly and others”, no signatures, vellum, 4½” x 11¾”, Bristol, the Sunday [9th March] next before the feast of St. Gregory [12th March], 50th year of Edward III [1376], All the witnesses named are connected with the great first flourishing of Bristol.  William Canynges the elder  was the first mayor of Bristol as a ‘City and County of a City’, 1373, the first designation of its kind. His ships carried his woollen cloth to Calais and Flanders and pilgrims to Coruña for Compostella. He was again mayor in 1375, 1381, 1385 and 1389, and three times M.P.. His grandson, William the younger (c. 1399-1474), rebuilt St. Mary Redcliffe as it appears today.  Henry Vyell  was the father of John (d. 1398), the first Sheriff of Bristol in 1373.  Walter Derby  senior was Canynges’ fellow bailiff in 1362, mayor 1367, and M.P. 1372. His son founded St. Werburga’s church.  Walter Frampton  (d. 1388) is buried in St. John the Baptist’s church. His father founded the chantry there in 1375.  Elias Spelly  built the chapel on Bristol Bridge, dedicated in 1361. He shared with Canynges the licence to take pilgims to Coruña and bring back merchandise, and they were M.P.s together for Bristol in 1386. For this period see Edith E. Williams, ‘The Chantries of William Canynges [the younger] in St. Mary Redcliffe’ (1950), pp. 45-51. Bristol was one of the 16 cities appointed to register recognisances for debt (see Birch, ‘Seals’, 1907, p. 69). Little Torrington is on the South side of the Torridge, with Great Torrington on the North in Fremington Hundred. They are linked by the Town Bridge and (on the East) by Town Mills Bridge.