Background
Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364.
Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364.
Chicheley told the pope in 1443, in asking leave to retire from the archbishopric, that he was in his eightieth year. He was the third and youngest son of Thomas Chicheley, who appears in 1368 in still extant town records of Higham Ferrers as a suitor in the mayor's court, and in 1381-1382, and again in 1384-1385, was mayor: in fact, for a dozen years he and Henry Barton, school master of Higham Ferrers grammar school, and one Richard Brabazon, filled the mayoralty in turns. His occupation does not appear; but his eldest son, William, is on the earliest extant list (1373) of the Grocers' Company, London. On the 9th of June 1405 Chicheley was admitted, in succession to his father, to a burgage in Higham Ferrers. His mother, Agnes Pincheon, is said to have been of gentle birth.
