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BREDES, John (d.1572), of Rye, Suss.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
m. Bennet.
Offices Held
Chamberlain, Rye 1547, jurat by 1558, mayor 1560-1, 1569-70.
Biography
The Bredes family, perhaps originating in the village of Brede near Winchelsea, are to be found in eastern Sussex from the end of the thirteenth century until modern times. Bredes himself was a merchant: in his will he mentioned ‘all my shops at the strand in Rye’ and ‘my shop that I ... do now occupy’. He also referred to his half-share in the boat that one Davy Hatchet of Rye went to sea in, and he left this share to Hatchet as well as the price of some new rigging for her. As early as 1545 he is to be found as the owner of a ship, the James. He rented one of his shops from the corporation, was noted in the town records in August 1565 as holding certain lands outside the south gate of Rye, and in January 1559 he and another were elected in the presence of the mayor and jurats to represent the town at the coronation, an assignment for which Bredes was paid 28s.
He was elected to Parliament at an assembly held in the churchyard on 13 Dec. 1562, together with George Reynolds I. Between March and June 1563 they received parliamentary wages totalling £14 14s.8d. No records have been found of any payments for the 1566-7 session.
In his will, made 3 Mar. 1572 and proved on the 18th, Bredes asked that his house and lands at Fleckly, in Peasmarsh, Sussex, should be divided into four parts, of which his wife Bennet should have three and his sister Marion Chapman one. Bennet (appointed executrix and residuary legatee) was to have all the shops in the Strand for life, while Marion Chapman was to have three others. Bredes bequeathed £20 to the poor of Rye and other small legacies to neighbours and servants; he left George Reynolds ‘my great gold ring and £4’, appointing him overseer. No children were mentioned, though, judging from his wife’s will, they brought up an orphan boy. Bennet died a few months after her husband.
L. A. Vidler, New Hist. Rye, 159-60; E. Suss. RO, Rye mss; Suss. Arch. Colls. lxi. 131; Suss. N. and Q. xi. 49; LP Hen. VIII, xx(2), p. 42; W. Holloway, Hist. Rye, 306; PCC 8, 17 Daper.
