Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Bedford 1372, 1378-9, 1389-90.1

Biography

Wright was a mainpernor for Henry West* and Roger Barker^† when, in 1377 and 1383 respectively, they were elected to Parliament for Bedford. He and Thomas Jordan* together took sureties of £10 from West in 1379, but the precise nature of this transaction is not recorded. He is noted as being present as a juror at the mayor’s view of frankpledge in 1385 and 1391, but although the word ‘mort’ is entered against his name in the burgess roll of 1399, he evidently survived well into the next century. In January 1400, for example, he acted as a trustee for one of his neighbours, being described on this occasion as a resident of St. Paul’s parish, Bedford. He may well have been the John Wright who, three years later, led a raid on the property of one of the bishop of Durham’s servants at Roxton in Bedfordshire, but this cannot be proved. A man of the same name also appears to have been a fooffee-to-uses of the manor of Eyworth, some ten miles south-east of Bedford, during this period.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

Variants: Wryght or Writhe. His trade as a ‘dyere’ is noted on the return for 1391 (C219/9/8).

• 1. Beds. RO, DDTW 339; DDW 17; Bedford Town Hall, DDX 67/47, 48.
• 2. C219/8/1, 8; Bedford Town Hall, DDX 67/47, 49, 50; views of frankpledge for 1385, 1391; C.F. Farrar, Old Bedford, 111; C1/5/58; CCR, 1413-19, pp. 392-3.