Family and Education

Offices Held

Mayor, Devizes 1377-9, 1381-2.2

Biography

William Spicer first appears in 1355, when he served as a juror at an inquisition post mortem held at Devizes. During his three mayoralties he acted ex officio as overseer of repairs to the royal castle of Devizes and the enclosure of the park there. As mayor at the time of the poll tax of 1379, he paid 6s.8d. (the usual sum exacted from senior officials of boroughs). He stood surety for the attendance of John Boxe at the Parliament of 1381, and for that of Richard Cardmaker at the second Parliament of 1383.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

• 1. Despite the long gap between his first two returns to Parliament, there is no evidence that the William Spicer who sat for Devizes in 1362 was not he who sat between 1383 and 1395.
• 2. Wilts. Arch. Mag. xliii. 348.
• 3. Wilts. IPM Edw. III (Brit. Rec. Soc. Index Lib. xlviii), 239; E101/593/49; E179/239/193 m. 5; C219/8/5, 9.