Family and Education

s. of Nicholas Forsthull of Oxford by his w. Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Legh (d.1345), town clerk. m. bef. June 1390, Alice, wid. of Peter Panyter and of William Codesale^† of Oxford.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Oxford Mich. 1390-1.

Biography

The son of an Oxford burgess and former bailiff, whose family probably came from Forest Hill, near Wheatley, Thomas set up in business as a taverner and brewer.1 He also furthered himself by marrying the widow of William Codesale, a prominent burgess who had been six times mayor and served often as an MP. He was surety for the attendance of John Ottworth at the Parliament of September 1397. He acted as a juror in local courts between 1405 and 1409, by which time he was a member of the common council of the borough.2 Forsthull’s property in Oxford included Gloucester Hall, near Carfax, which he conveyed to William Brampton II* in 1404.3

Oxf. Hist. Soc. lxxxv. no. 153; (ser. 2), xiv. 207; xx. 17-18, 115-16; CCR, 1389-92, p. 187.

Oxf. Hist. Soc. xxxvii. 18.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

• 1. Ibid. lxxiii. 34, 37, 48-49, 54, 122.
• 2. C219/9/13; Bodl. Twyne mss 4, f. 26, 23, ff. 357-8; Univ. Coll. hustings roll 1a.
• 3. Oxf. Hist. Soc. xv. 202, 205; (ser. 2), xx. 100.