Family and Education

m. Agnes.1

Offices Held

Biography

Gobet is first mentioned in the records in May 1372, when he acted as a juror at an inquisition held in Salisbury on the Wiltshire lands of Thomas de Vere, late earl of Oxford. He witnessed a Devizes deed in 1378, and in 1379 he paid as much as 2s. towards the poll tax, his occupation being then given as ‘butcher’. Having stood surety for the attendance of John Mulleward at the Parliament of October 1382, and for that of John Bochard, another representative of Devizes at both Parliaments of 1384, Gobet apparently acted as his own surety when he was himself returned in 1385.2

In about 1388 Gobet purchased 20 acres of land in Rowde, two miles north-west of Devizes, and then conveyed them to John Peyntour* and other trustees. They were intended to finance an annual mass at St. Mary’s, Devizes, for the welfare of Gobet and Agnes his wife, and of certain other townspeople, as well as for their souls after death. On the same day as the mass was said, a dole of 20s. was to be distributed to the poor of the town.3 Gobet probably did not long survive the institution of this charity, for nothing is heard of him after his election in 1390.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

• 1. Wilts. Arch. Mag. ii. 252-3.
• 2. Wilts. IPM Edw. III (Brit. Rec. Soc. Index Lib. xlviii), 365; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xliii. 48; E179/239/193 m. 5; C219/8/7, 10, 11, 12.
• 3. Wilts. Arch. Mag. ii. 252-3. ‘Gobet’s dole’ was still being distributed to the poor of Devizes in the 18th century.