STRENSHAM, John, of Gloucester.

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 1413

Family and Education

m. (1) 1s; (2) aft. 1427, Alice, wid. of Henry Salesbury of Gloucester.1

Offices Held

Steward, Gloucester Mich. 1409-10; bailiff 1419-20, 1422-3, 1428-9, 1432-3, ?1434-5, 1437-8.2

Biography

It may well have been this John Strensham who was engaged in the manufacture of cloth in Gloucester in 1397-8, for before too long he was selected as one of the four stewards, and he regularly witnessed local conveyances from that date for over a period of 20 years. In October 1412 Strensham was made a trustee of the property in Gloucester once belonging to Magota Bele, on condition that the income should go to the hospital of St. Bartholomew.3 Seven months later he was representing the borough in Parliament. At Easter 1417 he served as a juror at an assize of novel disseisin held in Gloucester, and in September 1419 he became bailiff for the first of possibly six annual terms. Having attended the election of the knights of the shire held in the county court meeting at Gloucester in 1415, in October 1419 he was responsible (along with his fellow bailiff) for supervising the selection of the parliamentary burgesses. Then, at the very end of his second term in office, on 4 Oct. 1423, he and John Bisley II* completed the return for the borough which named he himself as a burgess-elect, although he was no longer a bailiff when the Commons actually assembled. Strensham was again present at the shire court for the elections of 1425, 1427 and I433, on the last occasion being accompanied by his son, Robert.4 During his final term as bailiff he and his colleague, Richard Dalby*, reached agreement with the local house of Franciscans to ensure regular water supplies to the town. He died before 1455, when his widow was in possession of some of his property in Northgate Street and outside the east gate. Alice had, by that time, taken her vows.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants: Streinsham, Strenchesham, Streynisham. See Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. lxxiv. 110-11 where, however, the MPs of 1413 and 1423 are held to be two different men. Strensham was a common name in Glos. during this period, particularly in Tewkesbury. It is therefore unlikely that the Gloucester MP was the man of this name who officiated as searcher of ships in Melcombe and Poole from 1433, nor the merchant living in Bristol in 1436 who was still alive in 1465: CIPM, xii. 366; C135/210/4; CPR, 1401-5, pp. 146, 148; Bristol Wills (Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. 1886), 128-9, 140; Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. xxiv. 95.

  • 1. Salesbury had been bailiff of Gloucester in 1426-7: E372/272 m 26d.
  • 2. HMC 12th Rep. IX, 421; Gloucester Corporation Recs. ed. Stevenson, 1082, 1092, 1096, 1102-3, 1112; E372/262 m. 13d, 268 m. 15d, 274 m. 14d. S. Rudder’s New Hist. Glos. 115 is the sole source for the year 1434-5.
  • 3. E101/339/2; Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1069, 1071-2, 1078-9, 1091, 1108.
  • 4. C219/11/6, 12/3, 13/2-5; Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1085-7; Gloucester Guildhall, roll 1353; C115/K2/6682, f. 104d.
  • 5. Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1112; Trans Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. xiii. 242; Gloucester Rental 1455 ed. Cole, 4, 26, 76, 90, 100, 102, 108.