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ROUPE, Gilbert (by 1514-75/78), of Dartmouth, Devon.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. by 1514; prob. bro. of Nicholas. m. 3da.1
Offices Held
Receiver, Dartmouth 1544-5, mayor 1551-2, common councilman by 1558.2
Biography
Gilbert Roupe could claim gentle descent but it was as a merchant trading from Dartmouth that he made his career. In 1535 he sued another merchant in the town’s court on behalf of Christopher Savery for damage done to a boat. His election with Nicholas Adams alias Bodrugan to the Parliament of March 1553 followed immediately on his mayoralty and represented a return to the port’s policy of choosing a townsman with a local lawyer: in the following Parliament Adams was to sit with Nicholas Roupe. Although Gilbert Roupe was not re-elected to Parliament he remained active in municipal affairs until his death. By his will made on 17 Apr. 1575 and proved on 17 Nov. 1578 he asked for burial in St. Saviour’s church in Dartmouth, provided for his daughters, two of whom Dorothy and Thomasin were unmarried, and named Dorothy executrix.3