Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Bedford 1369, 1378-9; mayor 1380, 1381-2, 1385-6, 1388-9, 1391, 1393-4, 1400, 1402.1

Tax collector, Beds. Nov. 1377, Bedford May 1379.

Commr. of inquiry, Bedford May 1386.

Biography

Jordan is notable for his long and active career in local government, which spanned a period of at least 33 years. He was serving as bailiff of Bedford for the second time, in 1379, when Henry West* offered him and John Wright* a bond in £10. During the second of his many mayoralities he made a report to the sheriff of Bedfordshire on the structural condition of Bedford gaol; and during the third he was appointed to a commission of inquiry into the lands of a potential royal ward. As ‘of Bedford’, he pledged joint sureties of £600 in 1393 for the appearance of Sir Edward Butler before the King’s Council. Although his name is struck through on the Bedford burgess roll of 1399, he is known to have been mayor at least twice after this date, and in 1405 to have arbitrated in a dispute between William Brown* and the prebendary of St. Mary’s, Bedford.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

• 1. Beds. RO, DDTW 12/54, 78, 125, 207, 373, 427, 438, 529, 564, DDL 238, DDW 15, 16; Bedford Town Hall, DDX 67/50, 52-53, 74; views of frankpledge for 1385, 1391; Bedford ct. bk. 1400-1, passim; Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc. xvii. 141.
• 2. CCR, 1381-5, p. 45; Bedford Town Hall, DDX 67/47; CPR, 1391-6, p. 337; C.F. Farrar, Old Bedford, 111; Ancient Chs. and Muns. Bedford (1895), no. 18.