DAPER, Richard (by 1537-71/72), of London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1558

Family and Education

b. by 1537. m. (1) Anne (bur. 25 Apr. 1559); (2) 18 Nov. 1560, Margaret, da. of wid. of one Pulvercost.1

Offices Held

Servant of Sir Thomas Cheyne by 1558.2

Biography

The name of the second Member for Hythe in the last Marian Parliament is derived from the Crown Office list of Members, where it is given as Richard Draper. This is almost certainly an error for Richard Daper, the name of a servant of the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, Sir Thomas Cheyne. The warden had nominated the second Member for Hythe in the two previous Parliaments and he is unlikely to have forgone his claim to do so on this occasion.

Daper’s connexion with Cheyne is revealed in the warden’s will of 6 Dec. 1558, in which he is mentioned twice: as ‘my servant’ he had a bequest of £20 and as the lessee from Cheyne of lands and tenements in South Mimms he was commended to the warden’s granddaughters as deserving the peaceful enjoyment of those properties during the term of the lease. Where and in what capacity he served Cheyne has not been established but the traces of a family of his name in London suggest that he may have done so at Cheyne’s house at Blackfriars. The Daper or Dapers family of London lived in the parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and furnished a number of entries in its registers between 1559 and 1572, including those of the burial of Anne Dapers on 25 Apr. 1559, the marriage of Clement Dapers in the following month and the marriage of Richard Dapers and Margaret Pulvercost on 18 Nov. 1560. From the will which Richard Daper made on 16 Feb. 1571 it is clear that Anne Dapers had been his wife and Clement Dapers, who also died before the will was made, his brother. The testator’s own burial is not recorded unless he was the ‘Richard Day’ who appears in the burial register, as printed, on 3 Jan. 1572: as this was when the will was proved ‘Day’ may be a mistranscription of the contracted form of ‘Daper’.3

The will is that of a Protestant, confident of salvation by Christ’s death and passion ‘and by no other means or ways’. Daper also asked that at his burial in St. Botolph’s, near his former wife Anne, there should be ‘a godly sermon ... made by some well-disposed preacher’. He made bequests to the poor of the parish, prisoners in London and Southwark, and the children of Christ’s Hospital. No child of his own is mentioned, but he left £200 to the children of his brother Clement. Two brothers-in-law, Ralph Burton and Thomas Lawe, and their wives received money for gowns. Since there is no reference to a surviving wife, it remains doubtful whether the Richard Daper(s) who married Margaret Pulvercost in 1560 was the testator. The executor, Daper’s friend Clement Cicelay, received a cloak, harness, saddle, sword and other bequests.

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

  • 1. Presumed to be of age at election. Regs. St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, ed. Hallen, i. 4, 256, 270.
  • 2. PCC 1 Chaynay.
  • 3. Regs. St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, i. 3, 4, 256, 270; PCC 1 Daper.