ALLSOP, John (by 1520-70), of Ludlow, Salop.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1520.1

Offices Held

Town clerk, Ludlow ?by 1541, bailiff 1543-4, 1552-3, 1562-3, ?dep. recorder.2

Biography

Possibly of Derbyshire origin or descent, John Allsop is first mentioned in the Ludlow churchwardens’ accounts of 1541, when he was paid 8d. for ‘making book of four wards’; the entry suggests that he was already acting as town clerk. Two years later he bought the reversion of a pew in the church and in 1546 he and Thomas Blashefild were granted the reversion of another held by John Bradshaw I. It may have been in his capacity as town clerk, and possibly deputy-recorder, that Allsop regularly entertained James Warnecombe, recorder from 1551 to 1563, on his visits to the borough: in 1553 the borough paid 2s.4d. for ‘the judge at Mr. Allsop the second week of Lent’ and another 16s. ‘to Mr. Allsop for Mr. Warnecombe’s supper’, and similar entries appear in the accounts for 1555, 1557 and 1558.3

It was with Warnecombe that Allsop was returned to Mary’s third Parliament and he seems to have shared the recorder’s religious outlook. For his unauthorized withdrawal from the Commons before the close of the Parliament he was informed against in the King’s bench in the following Easter term: a writ of venire facias issued, but no further proceedings seem to have been taken against him. His departure had not been caused by any urgent call from home, for it was not until 20 Mar., more than two months after the dissolution, that the Ludlow corporation ‘gave Mr Allsop his welcome home from London’. The index to a lost borough minute book for Ludlow suggests that he was originally elected senior Member to the Parliament of 1558, but the indenture gives the name of Richard Prince over an erasure.4

Allsop died in the summer of 1570 and the churchwardens’ accounts record that 6s.8d. was spent upon his burial on 24 June. The parish register styles him ‘the recorder of this town’, but this must be taken to mean either that he was acting as deputy to Sir John Throckmorton I, who was almost certainly recorder at the time, or that the term was applied loosely to his office of town clerk.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Harding

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference.
  • 2. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), vii. 14; Bodl. Gough Salop, 1, ff. 276v, 277v.
  • 3. LP Hen. VIII, xvi; CPR, 1549-51, p. 80; Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accts. (Cam. Soc. cii), 9, 16, 28; Salop RO, Ludlow bailiffs’ accts.
  • 4. KB27/1176, rex roll 17; Salop RO, Ludlow bailiffs’ accts.; 356/2/15 ex inf. R. C. Gabriel; C219/25/89.
  • 5. Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accts. 144; Salop Par. Regs. Diocese of Hereford, xiii. 223; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), xi. 315; liv. 174.