Family and Education

prob. s. of Thomas Shore*. m. Isabel, ?1s.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Derby Mich. 1426-7.1

Tax collector, Derbys. Apr. 1428.

Biography

Ralph, a merchant, is first heard of in association with Thomas Shore (perhaps his father) when, in 1387, both of them were present at Derby to hear William Groos* offer his ward the hand in marriage of William Pakeman’s* daughter. Also along with Thomas, in February 1413 he witnessed a local conveyance, and in March 1414 he was distrained, but not empanelled, to serve as a juror at the investigations into lollardy held at Derby. He did, however, actually serve on local juries in June the same year, giving evidence before royal commissioners of oyer and terminer, and again in 1426, at the sessions of the peace. In the meantime, at the borough elections of 1414 and 1425, Shore had found mainprise for the attendance in the Commons of a fellow merchant, Elias Stokkes, and he went on to witness the election indentures for the Parliaments of 1427 and 1429.2

In 1434, at a special court at Derby presided over by the duke of Bedford, it was alleged that in June 1430 Walter Fairfield of Leicestershire, yeoman, along with a local bowyer and cutler, had assaulted Shore in the town and badly wounded him. He had died, perhaps as a result of these injuries, at an unspecified date before December 1431. Shore’s property in Derby was then valued at £2 p.a. He was survived by his widow, but not beyond the spring of 1442, for it was then that John Shore, perhaps his son, sold six messuages and 30 acres of land in the town which had come into his possession on her death.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. E372/272 m. 24.
• 2. Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xv. 89; E326/1250; KB9/204/1 m. 78, 2 m. 33; E101/122/9; C219/11/5, 13/3, 5, 14/1.
• 3. KB9/11 m. 17d; Feudal Aids, i. 279; CP25(1)39/45/35.