Family and Education

m. 2s.

Offices Held

Rent collector, Wells Mich. 1407-9; constable of the peace 1409-12; auditor 1410-11, 1422.1

Biography

Cutte became a freeman of Wells in 1400, when it was stated that he had ‘paid in full and so is quit’. By 1428 he had provided as many as 14 pledges for other new freemen, being usually designated ‘senior’ in the convocation books of the town in order to distinguish him from his son of the same name. To a minor extent he was involved in the administration of Wells, notably in tax collecting in ‘Towkerstrete’ and ‘Cuthbertestrete’ between 1407 and 1422, and in 1417 the master chose him to arbitrate in a dispute over a building in Grope Lane. By 1419 Cutte had been made a feoffee of the local property of Walter Duddesden*; and in 1423 he was similarly entrusted with that of Richard Setter*.2 He attested six parliamentary elections for Wells at Ilchester, in 1417, 1420, 1421, 1422, 1426 and 1429. It is possible that the attestor on this last occasion was Cutte’s son, but Cutte senior was definitely still alive in November 1428.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. Wells Town Clerk’s office, convoc. bk. 1378-1450, ff. 172, 176, 179, 186, 193, 241.
• 2. Wells convoc. bk. ff. 170, 174, 177, 185, 215, 222, 231; Wells City Chs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xlvi), 132, 134-42; Som. Feet of Fines (ibid. xxii), 54.
• 3. C219/12/2, 4, 6, 13/1, 4, 14/1; HMC Wells, ii. Ch. 587. The younger John had become a freeman ‘by patrimony’ in 1411, his brother William in 1423; Wells City Chs. 136, 139.