BRADLEY, Henry, of Bradley, Wilts.

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

May 1421

Family and Education

Tax collector, Wilts. Apr. 1428.

Offices Held

Commr. to take an inquisition post mortem, Wilts. June 1433.

Biography

A lawyer operating mainly in the south-western counties, Bradley was much in demand as a mainpernor and witness, and it is in these capacities that he most frequently appears in the records. Thus, in 1412 he stood surety for a member of the Wiltshire family of Worfton, who was being sued for detaining a chest of documents, and for the appearance in court of the vicar of Mursley, Buckinghamshire, who was in dispute with Philip Repingdon, bishop of Lincoln. In June 1416 he provided securities at the Exchequer for Philip Loryng when the latter took out a lease of an estate at Frome, Somerset, and in February 1421 he attested a conveyance made by Cecily, widow of Sir William Cheyne*, of her manors of Seavington St. Michael, Somerset, and Pinhoe, Devon. Bradley twice appeared as a surety for men appointed to farm the subsidy and alnage of cloth: in 1422 for fabric sold in Somerset and in 1424 for that sold in Bristol.1

From November 1426 to Easter 1428 Bradley acted as attorney on behalf of William Rous when the latter claimed the manor of Great Chalfield, Wiltshire, against Thomas Beverley, appearing in Chancery on at least five occasions and successfully defending Rous’s title. He assisted Robert Long* in transactions relating to an estate at Porton and Little Langford later in 1428. He was associated with William Coventre II* and William Botreaux, a London draper, in receiving from Robert Peny of South Tidworth, Hampshire, in July 1429 a recognizance for £600, and five months later he and Botreaux were members of another group to whom Peny was similarly bound, this time in the sum of £500. In May 1434 Bradley was among the gentry of Wiltshire obliged to take the oath, authorized by Parliament, not to maintain those who broke the King’s peace. He had been present at the county elections to the Parliament of 1432, and again attended in 1442 and 1447.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

  • 1. CCR, 1409-13, pp. 327, 408; 1419-22, p. 212; CFR, xiv. 161, 431; xv. 86, 124.
  • 2. Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, i. 314; VCH Wilts. vii. 60; CCR, 1422-9, p. 468; 1429-36, p. 29; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 431; CPR, 1429-36, p. 371; C219/14/3, 15/2, 4.