Merton’s Medieval Rebels: Jack Cade’s rebellion of 1450

Several inhabitants of Merton and Mitcham, and one from Morden, were included among a list of 3449 named individuals granted a royal pardon in July 1450 for their involvement in Jack Cade’s rebellion.

The one from Morden was John Sauger, the ‘farmer’ or lessee of Westminster abbey’s demesne lands here, and collector of the abbey’s rents. He was pardoned among a group from Wallington Hundred, mostly from Mitcham.

Thirteen names of Mitcham inhabitants appear on the list, two listed twice, while 22 came from Merton, two of whom were listed twice. But several of these Merton and Mitcham inhabitants are known to have also held land in Morden, and Thomas Codyngton, one of the two ‘gentilmen’ listed for Merton, who was lord of the nearby manor of Cuddington, also held two Morden Fee properties in Ewell from Westminster abbey.

We have produced an Excel spreadsheet of all the entries, taken from a digitised copy of the Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry VI 5 (1909) pp.338-374 accessed from https://familysearch.org. We have corrected many errors due to the digitisation process, but some no doubt remain. We have also identified some of the more obvious duplications in entries, though others are possible. It would seem that community leaders obtained pardons for members of their communities, but many decided that an individual pardon was preferable.

Download the spreadsheet here: Jack Cade rebellion of 1450 – database

Read more in an article from our December 2014 Bulletin: Merton’s Medieval Rebels