CHESTER, Dominick (c.1532-c.76), of Blackfriars, Bristol, Glos.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1532, 4th s. of William Chester by Anne, ?da. of Maurice Large of Wallis Court, Glos.; bro. of Thomas. m. issue.

Offices Held

Warden, Bristol merchant venturers 1566, master 1569; sheriff, Bristol 1567-8; commr. for provisioning forces in Ireland 1573.

Biography

Chester was a Bristol merchant who sometimes traded through Southampton, importing woad and sugar. He once acted there as attorney on behalf of a French merchant, and in 1571 the Southampton corporation took steps to ensure that a debt, owing to him by a merchant of the town, was satisfied. His chief trade was from Bristol, mostly with the Portuguese and French. When, in 1571, his goods, together with those of other English merchants in Portugal, were impounded, the victims were authorised by the judge of the admiralty court to compensate themselves from Portuguese goods in England. Satisfaction was not forthcoming and in January 1575, his case having been taken up by the Privy Council, a Portuguese cargo at Southampton was impounded and divided—proportionate to loss—between Chester and two other merchants. On another occasion a cargo of woad was seized by the Huguenots at La Rochelle, but after an unsuccessful application to the King of France for redress, Chester was authorised in December 1573 to impound green woad coming from La Rochelle.

In the meantime he had been returned to Parliament, through an unascertained connexion, for Minehead, and was appointed to a conference with the Lords on the length of kerseys on 28 June 1572. It is uncertain whether it was he or his brother Thomas who was appointed to committees during the second session of that Parliament. Dominick Chester died of the plague, about and probably in 1576.

NRA 4500, p. 1; Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. lv. 158-9; Bristol Wills, 31, 195, 204, 245; J. Latimer, Bristol Merchant Venturers, 46-52, 326; Third Remembrance Bk. ii. (Soton Rec. Ser.), 136-7; APC, viii. 23, 32, 160, 179, 183, 268, 329-30; Cal. Carew Pprs. i. 445; R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 108; CJ, i. 103; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 573.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.