Family and Education

m. bef. 1389, London, Agnes.1

Offices Held

Biography

A member of an old-established Wycombe family,2 Walter was a relation, possibly a son, of William Frere^†, one of whose transactions he witnessed in 1371. In December 1388 he was present at a meeting of the Wycombe corporation when it conveyed a tenement in Crendon Lane to William Depham* and others, and in the following year he himself sold a house in the town to Henry Colshull. In 1396 he was amerced before the manor court of Bassetsbury for failing to repair a house called ‘Cutudes’ which he occupied. He served as a juror in 1412 during the holding of an assize of novel disseisin at Wycombe, for the settlement of a dispute over land between William Clerk II* and Ralph atte Lude.3

Like others among his fellow burgesses, Frere may well have been a farmer, for he held three virgates of agricultural land in the manor of Bassetsbury in 1410, retaining them until at least 1421, when the last recorded notice of him occurs.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

• 1. CP25(1)21/106/26.
• 2. For an earlier Walter, who d. c. 1350, see Reg. Black Prince, iv. 50; HMC 5th Rep. 561.
• 3. HMC 5th Rep. 561-2; First Ledger Bk. High Wycombe (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), 37-38; CP25(1)21/106/26; St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, recs. XV/15/1 mm. 1-2; JUST 1/1/79/5.
• 4. DL29/652/10554; SC6/764/12, 13.