John Vyel

John Vyel was a merchant and civic official in 14th century Bristol. He exported cloth to Gascony, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, and also had an interest in its manufacture. Vyel’s imports included Spanish iron, and perhaps goods from Italy, too, for on one occasion he obtained royal letters permitting the exchange of £50 into foreign currency by a merchant from Lombardy. Robbery and piracy were quite common on seas these days and Vyel’s ships were not spared. He was one of several Bristol merchants who alleged in a bill presented to the King’s Council that their ship, the Magdaleyn, freighted with cloth and wool worth £1,000 for export to Lisbon, had been captured at sea in September 1383.

During his career Vyel acquired substantial property in Bristol of which the most important was the fine residence on the quay near Marsh Gate, known as “Vyellplace”. In 1393 Vyel conveyed all his Bristol property to John Denys and Robert Cherleton of Gloucestershire, no doubt in the capacity of feoffees, and five years later, shortly before he died, he was party to a settlement on his son, Henry, and the latter’s wife, Alice, of the manor of Claverham, Somerset, together with lands at Yalton, although how these had come to the Vyels is unclear.

Vyel also had rich civic career as he was Mayor of Bristol in 1388, and Member o Parliament in 1382 and 1390. He made his will on 25 May 1398. In it he made bequests to churches, almshouses, and the bedridden elsewhere. He died almost a year later, on 29 Mar. 1399.