Cely Papers: Letter SC 1/53/1: 8 December 1472: John Dycons to John Wode

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: London, England
Surnames/tags: cely_papers wode cely

SC 1/53/1; The National Archives, Kew, London

Contents 1 Original Transcription and Notes 2 Modernization 3 Notes 4 Sources

Original Transcription and Notes

Letter #1 by Alison Hanham in The Cely Letters 1472-1488.

Modernization

By Nicholas Adams.

Right worshipful and reverend master, I recommend myself to you, etc. May it please you that I have received by exchange from Thomas Kestevyn, attorney of Richard Cely, merchant of the Staple at Calais, £40 sterling to be paid to the said Richard Cely, or to the bringer of this letter, at London the 12th day of February next coming. The which £40 sterling I pray you may be well and truly content and paid at the day aforesaid, by this my first and second letter of payment. In witness hereof, I, the said John Dycons, have written this bill with my own hand and have set hereto my master’s seal, the 8th day of December, in the year of our Lord God, 1472.
By your attorney,
John Dycons

Dorse: To be given to my right worshipful master John Wode, merchant of the Staple at Calais, at London. Drawing of a shield.

Notes

An informal bill of exchange. The original sum would not have been paid in sterling but in Flemish currency at a rate calculated to allow a profit on the loan (in effect a spread), once it was repaid in sterling in London.
John Wode was probably also a merchant adventurer, and indeed may be the John atte Wode alias John Benyngton, grocer of London, who occurs in CCR 1468-76, p.85. The Cely memoranda contain two obligations in the name of John Benyngton, dated Feb. 1485/6 (File 13 ff. 19, 20)^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ The Cely Letters 1472-1488 edited by Alison Hanham.