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- Title
RICHARD OSBARN, GUILDHALL CHAMBER CLERK, 1400--37.
- Authors
Wood, Robert A.
- Abstract
Richard Osbarn held the office of Chamber Clerk (or chief officer) to the Chamberlain of the City of London from 1400 until his resignation in 1437. The Chamberlain was one of three important civic officers, the others being the Recorder and the Common (or Town) Clerk. Osbarn's name appears in the records of the proceedings of the Court of Aldermen and the Common Council acting as an arbiter on a number of occasions. He frequently appears as an executor in the wills of Londoners and their wives and the City's Letter Books record his conscientious attempts to safeguard the patrimonies of the orphan children of citizens. Recent research has suggested that Osbarn was one of a number of civic administrators who copied vernacular texts alongside their work on the City's own records. Most recently Osbarn has been identified as the scribe of an English petition presented to the Parliament of 1425 which sought to limit the amount of time that prisoners were held in the Tower awaiting trial on charges of treason, felony and Lollardy. This paper will look more closely at Osbarn's civic career and his relationship with London merchants, to examine the suggestion that he may himself have had Lollard sympathies.
- Subjects
OSBARN, Richard; CONSCIENTIOUSNESS; BUREAUCRACY
- Publication
Transactions of the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, 2018, Vol 69, p181
- ISSN
0076-0501
- Publication type
Article