Marion Kent
Marion Kent | |
|---|---|
| Died | 1500 |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Spouse | John Kent (died 1468) |
Marion Kent (died 1500) was an English businesswoman and property manager from York.[1] She belonged to the elite of her craft and sat on the council of the mercers guild in 1474–1475, a position highly unusual for a woman in that period.[2][3]
Life
[edit]She was married to former mayor John Kent.[1][2] Together, the couple joined the Mistery of Mercers in 1447.[4] When her husband died in June 1468,[5] their children were still minors and thus she took over the management of his merchant business.[6] The business dealt in a variety of goods, including cloth, oil, iron and timber through the Port of Hull. Kent was a supplier of iron and other materials to York Minster and sold timber to the guild of Corpus Christi.[1] She also invested in at least sixteen business ventures exporting lead and cloth.[2] Kent continued to maintain the businesses until her son Henry came of age in the late 1470s. Unusually for a woman at the time, she was a member of several guilds, including the prestigious St Christopher and St George guild, the Corpus Christi guild and held a seat on the council of the mercer's guild between 1474 and 1475.[1]
She also owned various properties in York and its surrounding regions, including a messuage in Hertergate, which she rented at an annual rate of 1 mark in 1468–1469.[1] In 1468, Kent received a license to have an oratory in her house.[5]
When she wrote her will in 1488, her household included only female servants.[1] Also in her will, she expressed a wish to be buried at All Saints' Church, Pavement, York, the same church where her husband was interred.[5] She also left her son Henry and his children £30. Kent died twelve years later in 1500.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f "Kent, Marion (d. 1500) | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64496. Retrieved 21 November 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c d Kermode, Jenny (2002). Medieval Merchants: York, Beverley and Hull in the Later Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 258, 340. ISBN 9780521522748. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ Rees Jones, Sarah (2017). "Women and Citizenship in Later Medieval York". In Simonton, Deborah (ed.). The Routledge History Handbook of Gender and the Urban Experience. Routledge. ISBN 9781351995757. OCLC 971613678.
- ^ "Hall Highlights: Female Merchants". Merchant Adventurer's Hall. 12 May 2020.
- ^ a b c Publications of the Surtees Society Volume 57. Surtees Society. 1872. p. 49.
- ^ Goldberg, Jeremy (1992). Women, Work, and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy: Women in York and Yorkshire c. 1300–1520. Clarendon Press. p. 125. ISBN 9780198201540. OCLC 45727438.