Mayor John Gawge 1466 Lineage and Documentation

Hello all, I am currently tracking down my family's genealogy from here in Texas all the way back to England. I've hit a dead end with John Gawge (1460-1521) whose sons, John & Peter Gawge lived in the Boxford/Edwardstone area coming from a family of cloth makers. In my searching I found this website, which lists the mayors of Coventry going back to 1345, which is very impressive! In this page a John Gawge is listed as mayor for a brief period in 1466, and I'm hoping someone here has more information or documentation on who this was. John Gawge/Gage is a name that gets passed down multiple times in a row in my family tree around this same time period, so with any luck this could be another one! Any information would be greatly appreciated, as I find this sort of stuff really fascinating. -Thanks from Texas!

Hi Texas Tourist, welcome to the forum The list of mayors is down to Rob our host, so he may have more information. There's is a reference online to a debt by a clothmaker John Gawge from Suffolk. Those he owes money to are from the same area including Boxford. There were links between Suffolk/Norfolk with Coventry but none specific that I know of. All the references bar the mayor to "Gawge" seem to be in the Suffolk/Norfolk area. Could the name be Flemmish? A lot of waves of weavers came over and settled in weaving areas like Coventry and Suffolk/Norfolk.

Good morning Texas Tourist, The list of mayors that I compiled is, sadly, just a list, and doesn't come with very much additional information except for snippets I've come across and added. However, there is a marvellous resource for early Coventry records known as the Leet Book. I have a copy of the transcripts made by Mary Dormer Harris back in 1907 to 1913, but fortunately there is also a free online version of parts of it - which luckily include the era around 1466. Here is a link to the relevant page (and on to the next page), which will give you an idea of what John Gawge needed to deal with back then ..... https://archive.org/details/coventryleetboo00unkngoog/page/340/mode/2up The fact that only one page is required for 1466-67 seems to indicate a relatively quiet time for that mayor - the events of some years took up many pages!

Quick update.... I'd made an error when I typed out the dates for the mayors on Historic Coventry - I'd missed 1465 and put 1466 twice! (Corrected now.) You might spot that in the Leet Book Jahn Gawge is listed under 1466, whereas my list (now) shows him for 1465. I believe that back then a mayor took office in November, so the leet book states the events that happened under each mayor, which would be most of the following year - my list is the year they began their term - even if there wasn't very much "year" left!

Reading the list of officials in previous years there are a John Gavge and a John Gauge. V and u being interchangeable, so probably one man John Gauge. Gawge just looks like a chance misspell in the original or in Mary Dormer Harris' transcription. A 'w' is pronounced 'double u'. I imagine that a handwritten u written with too much enthusiasm would look like a w.

Extract from a Kenilworth Advertiser newspaper dated 1904. Author Alfred J Brooker. Henry VI and his Queen Margaret were frequent visitors. In 1450 they came and heard High Mass sung in St. Michael's Church, Edward IV and his Queen kept their Christmas festival at Coventry in 1465. What a Christmas that must have been for gaiety and grandeur. What shows and pageants there would be in the streets, what banquets at St. Mary's Hall, what revels at Cheylesmore. The city would be overrun with lords and ladies, knights and squires, and serving men. John Gawge was the mayor that year.

There are other references to Sir John Gawge, most noble order of the garter

Thank you everyone for this great information! The Gawge/Gage family that made its way to America isn't related to the Sir John Gage in Sussex, but I did reach out to them and they had quite a bit of information to help me along my way! I'll have to see what I can find on that newspaper that was mentioned, and thank you Rob for hosting this wonderful site and providing such helpful information!