BAGGE, John, of Dunwich, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1377
Jan. 1380
Sept. 1388

Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Dunwich Sept. 1363-4, 1366-7, 1369-70, 1373-5, 1377-9, 1382-7, 1388-91, 1396-7, 1398-9.1

Biography

In December 1361 Bagge accused a carpenter of theft in a case brought before the Suffolk j.p.s, and certainly he was living in Dunwich by 1367, when he was party to a transaction regarding property in the town and also nearby. Evidently a prominent figure in the local community, he was chosen bailiff at least 17 times, and is known to have made the parliamentary returns for Dunwich in this capacity on nine occasions between 1377 and 1399.2

In the course of the town’s lengthy dispute with members of the Swillington family over foreshore rights at the havens of Dunwich and Southwold, Bagge played a leading part. He was one of the burgesses who in August 1384 reached an agreement with Sir Robert Swillington; he was among those who in 1398 challenged the Swillingtons’ claim to certain tenements at Blythburgh; and in 1400 he was mentioned by name in an assize of novel disseisin which the Swillingtons brought. Meanwhile, he had been a member of the town’s jury in a suit heard in the court of admiralty in December 1392.3

Bagge contributed 22d. to the first half of the parliamentary subsidy collected in Dunwich in January 1403, when he was living in St. Leonard’s parish.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: K.N. Houghton

Notes

  • 1. T. Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 77-78; E368/151-72.
  • 2. B.H. Putnam, Procs. J.P.s, 349; CP25(1)222/96/4; C219/8/1, 7, 10, 12, 9/1, 7, 12, 13, 10/1.
  • 3. Add. Chs. 40663-6; CCR, 1396-9, p. 332.
  • 4. Add. Ch. 40704. It was probably another John Bagge who was living in Dunwich c.1407-34: Add. Chs. 40706, 40714-15, 40720, 40728; SC11/886, 887; C219/10/6.