Richard Wainman, of Witney

Richard Wenman (or Wainman) of Witney, Clothier & Woolstapler, married 1) Anne Humphrey 2) Christian. Buried in Witney Church. He was the son of Henry the Wainman & Emmote, daughter of Simkin Hervey.

Children by 1st wife

• Richard, married Anne Bushe
• William, alias Fermor. Married Elizabeth Fermor
• Alice, married Laurence Fermor
• Ralph, a younger son. Under Steward of Pipewell Abbey

notes

From Wikipedia

A wool-stapler is a dealer in wool. The wool-stapler buys wool from the producer, sorts and grades it, and sells it on to manufacturers.

The expression wool-stapler fell out of use during the 20th century, see the external link below. Staple in this particular context means a market.

Prior to the 17th century Staple was also a particular type of market, "a place appointed by royal authority, in which a body of merchants had exclusive right of purchase of certain goods destined for export".

The now best known English staple was at Calais but in medieval times there were, at various times, many others throughout the kingdoms of England and Ireland and the facing coast of the Low Countries all involved, though not exclusively, with the English wool trade.

The importance of wool to the English economy can be shown by the fact that since the 14th Century, the presiding officer of the House of Lords has sat on the "Woolsack", a chair stuffed with wool.

From The Bourne Archive

Woolstapling and Fellmongering.

“Is there not a double excellency in this?”—Shakespeare –“Merry Wives of Windsor.”

"The woollen industry is older than all existing civilizations. Like many another art, the manufacture of wool has risen and fallen with the rise and fall of nations. Who first used the sheep’s woolly coat is unknown. The inscribed tablets recovered from buried cities in Western Asia and Southern Egypt show that woollen manufacture was practised by nations whose origin and end are unknown. In the very earliest traditions of our race the sheep figures as the useful property of man. We find in Genesis “and Abel was a keeper of sheep.” Job, the hero of the oldest book in the Bible, possessed in the days of prosperity which gladdened his old age 14,000 sheep, and was doubtless a large exporter of wool. Centuries later, Ezekiel spoke of Tyre as the market of white wool from Damascus, and blue cloths from the tribes of Syria. In vanished African Empires, wool stiffened with gold was worn by Kings and Chiefs. All round the world, “from China to Peru,” wool has been used for clothing, for comfort, and for ornamental fabrics, from times beyond the beginnings of recorded history. The woollen industry is, as the old Guild Charters say, “a most ancient and honourable craft.”". ...
"... There is little doubt that the high quality of English wool, and the wealth it brought, was one of the chief causes of the Norman Conquest. ..."

notes on the pedigree

Arms.—1. Sable, on a Jesse argent three lions' heads erased gules between three anchors or. [wenman.] 

From The History, Description and Antiquities of the Prebendal Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame, in the County and Diocese of Oxford:....  By Frederick George Lee.  "Pedigree of Wenman & Wykeman of Thame Park.". Page 439:

"They [the Wenmans] were originally clothiers of Witney; and, being the first that used wains or carts with four wheels to carry their cloth to London, were called ' Wainmen;' or else the first was a driver of a wain."—Giles's History of Witney, p. 102. London: 1852.

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• The History, Description and Antiquities of the Prebendal Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame, in the County and Diocese of Oxford:....  By Frederick George Lee.  Page 430-441. "Pedigree of Wenman & Wykeman of Thame Park."
• Visitation of the county of Oxford note: omits this generation
• http://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/ww/wenman1.php#link2 (membership required to view without interruption) comments: 1. Richard Wainman of Witney (d 1500) this generation given by BE1883, omitted by Visitation & BEB1841
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hwbradley/aqwg302... (Hal Bradley skips this generation)