MARCHAUNT, William III, of Wycombe, Bucks.

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

Family and Education

prob. s. of John and Isabel Marchaunt of Wycombe.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Wycombe 25 Mar. 1390-1.2

Biography

A member of a prolific Wycombe family, Marchaunt is first mentioned in 1386, when he was ordered to produce guarantors that he would not harm William Church, a fellow burgess. In March 1390, he leased from the commonalty two tenements in ‘Le Newelond’ and a house in Crendon Lane, part of the rent for which—as was usual with property held of the borough at this time—was to be paid to the wardens of the local guild of St. Mary. In 1396, Marchaunt acted as a pledge in the manor court of Bassetsbury. By 1410 he held half a virgate of land on this manor, at the unusually low annual rent of 1s., and nine years later he added two more virgates of agricultural land there, one of them containing a tenement called ‘Dawyslond’, for which he paid 20s. p.a. as rent.3 It seems likely, therefore, that Marchaunt, like many of his fellow burgesses, derived at least part of his income from farming.

Marchaunt witnessed the borough’s electoral returns to the Parliaments of 1419, 1420, 1422 and 1423. He is not heard of after 1425, when he gave up part of his land in Bassetsbury to Roger More*, retaining, however, one virgate and ‘Dawyslond’.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

  • 1. CP25(1)21/103/10.
  • 2. First Ledger Bk. High Wycombe (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), 40.
  • 3. CCR, 1385-9, p. 270; First Ledger Bk. 38-40; St. George’s Chapel, Windsor recs. XV/15/1 m. 2; DL29/652/10554; SC6/764/12, 13.
  • 4. C219/12/3, 4; 13/1, 2; Windsor recs. XV/15/1 mm. 9, 10.