Family and Education

s. of William Chesewell (d.c.1425), of Totnes by his w. Isabel. m. Joan, 1da. d.v.p.

Offices Held

Biography

Chesewell’s father was certainly still alive in 1414, which perhaps explains why in the assessment for the parliamentary subsidies then made in Totnes he himself was required to contribute no more than 1d.1 Henry seems to have been a shopkeeper or victualler: in 1425 the bailiff of Totnes alleged that he had sold three pipes of wine in a tavern without the mayor’s licence and had persistently traded in bread, beer and other commodities without paying local dues. Six years later he was recorded as owning a dwelling in the High Street jointly with his daughter, Elizabeth, but she evidently died soon afterwards, for she was not mentioned in his will made on 19 Aug. 1433. In this document Chesewell asked to be buried in the cemetery of St. Mary’s church in Totnes, and although his monetary bequests amounted to no more than 2s. he did leave two houses in the town along with more property in Dartington, stipulating that the income from the latter should first be used to satisfy his creditors and then to pay for prayers for his soul.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. H.R. Watkin, Totnes Priory and Town, 325, 329.
• 2. Ibid. 353-4, 363, 368-9.