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BEVERLEY, Thomas, of Cambridge.
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Biography Detail
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Family and Education
m. bef. Easter 1406, Isabel.
Offices Held
Porter of Cambridge castle, and keeper of the King’s warren at Cambridge and Chesterton 3 Nov. 1393-8 Apr. 1399
Bailiff, Cambridge Sept. 1406-7, 1411-12.1
Tax collector, Cambs. July 1413.
Alnager, Cambs. and Hunts. 17 Oct. 1413-17 Nov. 1414.
Biography
Thomas was probably related to John Beverley, the bailiff of Cambridge in 1359-60, and to another John, who sat for the borough at Leicester in 1414. The first mention of him occurs in 1380 when the sheriff of Cambridgeshire was sent a royal writ of supersedeas in his favour, Beverley having been sued by the Crown for contempt. In 1393 Richard II made him porter of Cambridge castle and custodian of the royal warren there and at Chesterton; but although the concession was originally intended to be for Beverley’s lifetime, he was replaced by Robert Attilbridge* in the spring of 1399.2
Nothing is known about the property Beverley held in Cambridge itself. Outside the town, however, he and his wife owned 12 messuages and some 180 acres of land at Arrington, which they conveyed to the Gascoigne family in 1406, and later that same year Beverley was party to the purchase of ten acres in Trumpington. In 1407, during his first term as bailiff, he was associated with Robert Goodrich* and others in the acquisition from John Hore I* of holdings in Chesterton and Rampton. It was also while in office that he brought an action against one Henry Dokworth for breach of the peace, although he was no longer bailiff when returned to the Parliament which met at Gloucester in October. Beverley was sued by William Erneham of Pinchbeck concerning a debt of nearly £4, but was pardoned his outlawry for failing to appear in court in February 1413.3 Later that year he was appointed collector of taxes in Cambridgeshire as well as alnager, both in that county and in Huntingdonshire. He was present at the borough elections to the Parliaments of 1413 (May), 1417, 1419 and 1421 (May).
