BURYTON, Thomas, of Hereford.

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

Feb. 1383
Sept. 1397

Family and Education

?1s. William*.

Offices Held

J.p. Herefs. 1 Mar. 1384-Nov. 1385.

Biography

There is no evidence of a connexion between the family of Buryton living at Hereford and that dwelling at Shrewsbury, and it is extremely unlikely that the subject of this biography was one and the same as the son of William Buryton, 15 times a bailiff of Shrewsbury between 1355 and his death in 1405.1Ancestors of our Member had lived in Hereford for some time: a Thomas Buryton had been town clerk in 1322, and yet another was sub-treasurer of the cathedral when he died in 1375.2

Thomas, along with Philip Buryton, possibly his brother, was involved in the local cloth manufacturing industry. In July 1377 he was one of the 25 citizens of Hereford appointed by the Crown as custodians of the city, with full powers as keepers of the peace and commissioners of array. At the sessions held at Hereford three years later by the j.p.s, he stood bail for one of the defendants. In January 1383, shortly before his first return to Parliament, Buryton took out a royal pardon for failing to appear in the court of King’s bench to answer charges regarding debts amounting to £25 12s. brought by two London men. The following year he was appointed to the Herefordshire bench, but was dismissed after little more than 18 months’ service. By 1387 he had acquired property in Grope Lane, Hereford, and in the course of the next ten years was frequently called upon to witness conveyances in the city and to act as a feoffee, for example of the local holdings of Walter Wormsley. Early in 1391 he took out a second pardon, again of outlawry for neglecting to defend himself in a suit for debt, this time of £23 1s.4d. owed to the executors of Thomas Orgrave.3

Some five or six years later, in about 1396, Buryton stood surety for Jordan Biggleswade when the latter was accused of ejecting the abbot of Dore, Herefordshire, by armed force and illegally taking his place. He himself was charged with violence in the year following his last return to Parliament. In September 1400, as a result of a bill presented to the King’s Council, a royal commission was set up in Hereford to make inquiries into the extortions, oppressions, trespasses and injuries he was alleged to have committed there against the royal councillor, Master John Prophet, then dean of the cathedral, and also against Prophet’s officers. The commission was renewed after two months, but the fact that those appointed to it, who included the mayor, had failed to act, suggests that Buryton’s misdeeds were connected with the dispute between the civic authorities and the dean and chapter which had already lasted for 11 years. Nothing more is heard of him after this incident.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants: Beriton, Biriton, Buton, Buyton, Byryton.

  • 1. CPR, 1388-92, p. 58; CCR, 1396-9, pp. 430-1, 435; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 1), ix. 187. The pedigree given in Vis. Herefs. ed. Weaver, 8-10, links the two families, but is chronologically confused.
  • 2. J. Duncumb, Hist. Herefs. i. 582; R. Johnson, Ancient Customs Hereford, 237.
  • 3. E101/121/19, 339/14; CPR, 1377-81, p. 5; 1381-5, p. 207; 1388-92, p. 284; Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. (NLW 1955), nos. 107, 419, 1162; E326/4120.
  • 4. CPR, 1399-1401, pp. 347, 413; 1401-5, p. 438; CCR, 1399-1402, pp. 312, 509. The Thomas Biriton esquire assigned to the service of the young sons of Roger Mortimer, earl of March, by Sept. 1401, was probably his Shrewsbury namesake: CPR, 1399-1401, p. 546.