TYLCOCK (TYLLOCK, TRILLCOCK), William (1503/4-78), of Oxford.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. 1503/4. m. Marian, at least 2da.1

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Oxford 1542-3, bailiff 1545-6, 1548-9, subsidy collector 1547, assistant to mayor 1554, coroner 1556, 1568, mayor 1556-7, 1560-1, 1568-9, 1575-6, alderman 1557-62, by 1574-d.2

Biography

William Tylcock’s origins and parentage are unknown. No one of the name was assessed for subsidy at Oxford in 1524 or 1525 and Tylcock himself was over 30 when he was admitted to the freedom as a baker in 1536-7.3

Tylcock was one of ten freemen authorized to sell plate and purchase lands on behalf of the city in 1550 and in the following year he shared the oversight of two fairs with John Wayte, later his fellow-Member. Among similar services, in November 1551 Tylcock was commissioned with Edward Glynton to negotiate a renewal of the city’s charter and in 1554 he was appointed with Wayte to instruct counsel in a suit between the city and George Owen. As mayor, he presided at the council on 15 Apr. 1557 when Wayte, gaoled for embezzlement, made his submission. He was among the richer citizens, being assessed for subsidy on goods worth £16 in 1543, 1544 and 1547, £12 in 1550, £15 in 1551 and £20 in 1559.4

Tylcock’s return to Mary’s third Parliament was a natural step in his civic career. One of the Members found absent without leave when the House was called early in 1555, he was informed against for this dereliction in the King’s bench during the Easter term. He was distrained 40s. on failing to appear, secured a postponement of his case in 1556 and was fined 53s.4d. in the Hilary term of 1558, when John Barton and Richard Williams stood surety for him. These proceedings did not prevent his being elected mayor for the first time in September 1556.5

Tylcock was often engaged in more personal disputes, which may have helped to prevent his reelection to Parliament. In 1545 he had been summoned before the city council with William Frere, father of Edward Frere, and Maurice Vaughan, all of whom were bound over for £20 each and ordered to submit their quarrels to arbitration. Soon after the end of his first term as mayor, he was sued in the court of requests by Philip Forman for alleged abuse of his authority. Under the terms of the bequest made by Thomas Mallinson to the city, Tylcock was to have the use of the sum of £200 for ten years. The money was to be used for ‘setting the poor people of the city at work’ in the clothing industry and Tylcock was also to take over Mallinson’s three apprentices. Apart from this no indication has been found that Tylcock, described as a gentleman in the records of the King’s bench, followed any other trade than that of baker, save that, like many other leading Oxford freemen, he owned a brewhouse. Mallinson and Tylcock quarrelled shortly before the former’s death. Tylcock was obliged to bring a chancery suit to recover the sum of £76 13s.4d. owed to Mallinson. Later the city itself took action against Tylcock, arranging on 7 Sept. 1562 for a letter of attorney to be made out against him concerning the bequest.6

Disgrace had already overtaken Tylcock, ‘sometime alderman’, since on 19 June 1562 he had been expelled from the council for supporting John Cumber in his disobedience. Tylcock must have hastened to make his peace, for on 16 Sept. it was agreed that his readmittance should be discussed again at Christmas. He had returned to civic life by 1568, when he again became mayor. He continued as a leading citizen for the next ten years and was sent to speak before the Privy Council in October 1574, when the city was at odds with the university. Wood records that Tylcock was involved in an extension of this dispute at the end of his life, when he and Ralph Flaxney were pronounced contumacious and Richard Williams was excommunicated for refusing to take the annual oath to the vice-chancellor.7

Tylcock died on 22 June 1578 and was buried on the same day in the church of St. Thomas. In his will, made on 25 Mar. 1577 and proved on 7 Nov. 1578, he laid down that his widow and executrix should cover the grave ‘with such stones as I have already for that purpose provided’ within six months of his burial: she was to apply one half year’s rent of his brewhouse by the Castle Gate to this use. She was to receive a life interest in this brewhouse, a meadow behind Osney and a farm at Combe. Various kinsmen were remembered, including two men described as the testator’s sons-in-law. The city of Oxford was to receive a silver gilt salt and Richard Williams a scarlet cloak.8

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

  • 1. Aged 74 at death according to MI, Antiqs. Oxf. iii. (Oxf. Hist. Soc. xxxvii), 193. Bodl. wills Oxon. 186, f. 23.
  • 2. Oxf. Recs. 167, 178, 192, 219, 261, 268, 280, 289, 293, 325, 357, 376; E179/162/244; CPR, 1566-9, p. 316.
  • 3. Antiqs. Oxf. iii. 193; Oxf. Recs. 149.
  • 4. Oxf. Recs. 203-4, 209-10, 222, 228, 264; Oxon. Rec. Soc. i. 76; E179/162/224, 229, 261, 282, 289, 318.
  • 5. KB27/1176-7, 1185.
  • 6. Oxf. Recs. 149, 176, 293; Req. 2/133/21; C1/1475/39; Bodl. wills Oxon. 181, ff. 199-200v.
  • 7. Oxf. Recs. 289, 294, 325, 357, 375-6; PCC 23 Sheffelde; APC, viii. 305; ix. 352-3; A. Wood, Hist. and Antiqs. Oxf. Univ. (1796), 186.
  • 8. Antiqs. Oxf. iii. 193, 261; Bodl. wills Oxon. 186, f. 23.