PICARD-L Archives

From: Ellen <>
Subject: [PICARD] Sir Henry Picard-or a long tale about french wine in England
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:35:32 -0700

This posting was made to a mailing list called London-Companys-L. I got it
because of my Rootsweb PML query for the name Picard. It is an interesting
tale of French wine in early England, but also some about these vintners
marrying into the English Society and government. Possibly some clues to
why a French surname may have came from England. Specifically mentioned is
one Sir Henry Picard who was a vintner who rose to prominance enough to
become Mayor of London in 1356. The posting is long, but an interesting
historical account of the role french wine played in the middle ages. A
bibliography is at the bottom. Ellen

peter wilson <> wrote:

> Source:
> Subject: [London-Companys] Alderman Vintners
>
> ALDERMAN VINTNERS
>
> Thirty eight monastic vineyards are mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
> The use of wine to represent the blood of Christ in the Mass made it a
> necessity throughout Christendom.
> Foreign trade in the middle ages was dominated by two commodities; the
> export or wool and the import of wines. Throughout the middle ages the
> Vintners' Company controlled the London wine trade and dominated that
> trade in the rest of England. Since the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor
> of Aquitaine the wines of Bordeaux had been favored in England and loyal
> Gascon subjects were given preferment English kings.
> Records of the Lorraine wine fleet during the reign of Henry II
> [1154-1189] show that Henry's chamberlain came aboard the ships and
> selected, by right of prisage, a tun of wine from vessels carrying more
> than 21 tuns. The chamberlain also had the right to buy more wine for
> the royal household or troops, at a favorable price, before the cargo
> was turned over to the "lawful merchants of London.".
> In the 1280's Edward I extended only for Gascons, among all foreigners,
> the time they could stay in England from 40 to 90 days.
> The archives of the Vintners' Company start with several deeds dated
> 1288. The first deed relating to a Hall was witnessed by John Chaucer,
> the father of the poet Geoffrey.
> The preferment of Gascon subjects in England was resented by the
> natives. Many Frenchmen were citizens of both London and Bordeaux, a
> privilege which exempted them from paying export customs in the latter
> port, unlike their English competitors, and they was also exempt, as
> Gascons, from municipal import dues or tallages to which English
> importers were subject. In 1304 twenty-four prominent Gascon vintners
> lived in Vintry Ward were exempt from that year's tallage. Since
> Gascons controlled most of the English market they could threaten
> boycott, and drive prices up. A measure of Vintners' wealth and
> influence is that twenty of the ninety-five known alderman before 1263
> were Vintners.
> However by 1303-4 English ships had begun to carry more of the wind
> than French vessels. That year of the 982 ships which sailed from
> Bordeaux only 6 were of that city. 9% were from nearby Bayonne, 10%
> from Normandy, 22% from Brittany, and 40% from England. According to
> the harvest wine fleets sailed twice a year, in late autumn with the
> vintage wines for Christmas and in February with the "reek" wines,
> strained off the lees, for Easter.
> Most Vintner's wills began with the name of the church in which they
> wished to be buried, with a bequest. These wills locate the testator on
> a specific London ward and street. In 1349 Richard Chaucer left a
> tenement and tavern in La Riole Street to the parson and parishioners of
> St. Mary Aldermanbury, and an annual payment of 40 shillings to St.
> Michael Paternoster for a chantry for the souls of his widow Mary, son
> Robert (the father of Geoffrey) and others.
> After Edward III married Philippa of Hainault in the 1320's more French
> subjects of Edward III rose to prominence in London. A 1364 charter
> gave the Vintners the right to buy herrings and cloth for export to
> Gascony. These Vintners bore surnames such as Gisors, Arar (Arras),
> Lier (Lierre), Zouch, Montpelier, Norman and Picard. Those with Vintner
> ancestors should be alert for French connections and relations among the
> inbred guildsmen.
> In 1364 Sir Henry Picard (vintner and Mayor of London in 1356) and his
> wife Margaret Gisors were wealthy enough to prepare a feast for five
> kings: Pierre de Lusignan, titular King of Cyprus, King John II of
> France, then a prisoner, King David II of Scotland, the king of Denmark,
> and King Edward III of England. The feast was recorded in the Black
> Book of Westminster Abbey in 1485, and marked the zenith of the
> influence of the Vintner's Company. It is recalled in the traditional
> toast of the Company, "The Vintners' Company, may it flourish, root and
> branch, for ever with Five and the Master." The kings were happy to
> dine and gamble with one of the richest merchants in London, who was
> extravagantly generous with the impoverished King of Cyprus, a poor
> looser at dice.
> Responsibility for consumer protection was taken seriously by all
> guilds. In 1364 John Penrose convicted of selling unsound and
> unwholesome wine in the tavern of William Doget. Penrose was ejected
> from the guild, made to drink a tankard of his bad wine while a barrel
> was poured over him, then committed to Newgate for a year and a day.
> In 1446 about three million gallons of wine were imported. The wine
> was worth L46,000, or about a third the value of all imports to England
> that year. Gascon wine, the monopoly of the Vintners Company,
> constituted about 90% of the wine imported. After the loss of Gascony
> in 1453, the value of the Vintners' monopoly by greatly diminished by
> competing wined from Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean, over which
> the Vintners had no monopoly. By the time of Stowe's survey the
> Vintners protested that they were only a minor company in London.
> After 1480 many prominant Vintners did not take an active role in
> the larger government of London, as Aldermen. For that reason your
> Vintner ancestor may not be listed below.
>
> 1636-1642.............W. ABELL
> 1446-1456............W. ABRAHAM also served as sheriff
>
> 1660-1660.............J. BARFORD
> 1668-1668.............J. BARFORD
> 1784-1785.............J BATES
> 1649-1649.............J BEADLE
> 1658-1682............Sir T. BLUDWORTH
> 1599-1599............Sir H. BRAWNE
> 1582-1594............Sir C. BUCKLE
>
> 1668-1668.............H. CHITTY
> 1378-1379.............J. CLYVELE
> 1744-1767.............F. COKAYNE
> 1324-1339.............Reginald de CONDUIT
> 1346-1347.............R. de CONDUIT
> later mayor, m. a da. of Wm Combermartin, a great woolmonger
>
> 1281-1281.............H. de COVENTRE
>
> 1663-1663..............P. DALLOW
> 4683-1705.............Sir S. DASHWOOD
> 1380-1381.............Walter DOGET also served as Sheriff & d.1388
>
> 1687-1688.............Sir B. FIREBRACE
> 1661-1661.............S. FOOTE
>
> 1330-1334..............H. de GISORS
>
> 1649-1649.............W. HANCOCK
> 1668-1668.............T. HARLEY
> 1702-1733............Sir G. HEATHCOTE
> 1796-1802............Sir W. HERNE
> 1649-1651.............M. HILDESLEY
> 1601-1601.............R. HUMBLE
>
> 1626-1626.............W. IVES
>
> 1767-1782.............B. KENNETT
> 1685-1697............Sir T. KINSEY
>
> 1737-1750.............Sir D. LAMBERT
> 1713-1718.............Sir J. LAWRENCE
> 1661-1661..............T. LEWIS
> 1374-1374..............Richard LYONS, client of John of Gaunt
>
> 1651-1651..............J. MARSHALL
> 1687-1687..............W. MART
> 1668-1668..............E. MIDWINTER
> 1382-1400.............W. MORE
> 1625-1625..............J. MUSCOTT
>
> 1377-1381.............G. NEWENTON
> 1710-1710.............E. NOBLE
>
> 1374-1374.............John PECCHE, client of John of Gaunt
> 1348-1361.............Henry PICARD m. Margaret Gisors
> 1808-1812............Sir W. PLOMER
> 1586-1589.............H. PRANNELL
> 1727-1729.............T. PRESTON
>
> 1680-1687............Sir T. RAWLINSON
> 1696-1708............Sir T. RAWLINSON
> 1650-1650............Sir T. RICH
> 1333-1346.............Richard de ROTHYNG,
> later sheriff, m. a da. of Wm Combermartin, a great woolmonger
> 1651-1651.............T. RUSSELL *
>
> 1604-1614............Sir C. SCUDAMORE *
> 1422-1433.............S. SEMAN also served as Sheriff
> 1397-1399.............H. SHORT
> 1516-1544............Sir J. SPENCER
> 1667-1667.............R. SPENCER
> 1352-1376.............John de STODEYE, m. da of Thomas Gisors, d.1376
>
> 1725-1735............Sir J. TASH
> 1656-1657.............G. TAYLOR
> 1656-1656.............R. TERRY
> 1726-1750............Sir J. THOMPSON
> 1377-1386.............W. TONGE
>
> 1383-1394..............Henry VANNER, m. Margery Stodeye, da. John
>
> 1400-1403.............J. WAKELE also served as Sheriff
> 1659-1661............Sir W. WALE
> 1664-1664..............W. WELLS
> 1612-1612.............W. WILLIAMSON
> 1648-1650..............R. WILSON
> 1622-1622.............C. WOODWARD
> 1657-1657.............W. WORMEWELL
> 1590-1590.............R. WYTHENS
>
> Sources:
> ......Rev. Alfred Beaven in "The Aldermen of the City of London,"
> Published by the Corporation of the City of London (printed by Eden
> Fisher, London, 1908 & 1912), v.1, p 348-349.
> ......Robert Blackham, "The Soul of the City, London's Livery
> Companies," pub by Sampson LowMarston & Co., London.
> ......Ann Crawford, "A History of the Vintners' Company," pub. 1977 by
> Constable. (I can not praise Crawford's scholarship too highly.)
> ......P. H. Ditchfield, "The Story of the City Companies," pub. 1926 by
> G.T. Foulis.
> .....Gordon Home, "Medieval London" pub. 1927 by Ernest Benn, London,
> reprinted 1994 by Bracken books and available in remainder houses, gives
> a overview of life in medieval London.
> ......Valerie Hope, Clive Birch & Gilbert Torry, "The Freedom: Past and
> Present of the Livery, Guilds and city of London" 1982, printed by
> Barracuda Books, Buckingham, pp 102-103.
> ......George Unwin, "The Gilds and Companies of London," pub. 1908
> Metheun & Co., London.
>
> Your corrections, additions and comments are requested.

--
Picard Pines:
http://homepage.plix.com/picard/
Morrison-Picard Family:
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/p/i/c/Ellen-J-Picard
Picard Surname Homepage:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~picard/Index.html

This thread:

• [PICARD] Sir Henry Picard-or a long tale about french wine in England by Ellen <>