Family and Education

Offices Held

Mayor, Coventry 1572.

Biography

Returned to Parliament during his mayoralty, Wight was appointed to a committee on hats and caps, 22 Feb. 1581. He does not appear to have received parliamentary wages or expenses until that year when he and his fellow-Member were paid £20. In 1582 he received £50, and in 1585 £15. In November 1600 he claimed that the corporation still owed him money from the time he was a burgess in Parliament, but as he owed them three years’ rent the debts on both sides were cancelled by agreement.

Wight had been on the corporation for more than 20 years when, about 1589 he walked out of the council chamber, refused to submit to the mayor and was expelled. Seven or eight years later, 26 Jan. 1597, he was restored on promising ‘never to offend in the like’ but to ‘do his best endeavour whilst he liveth’ for the good of the corporation. He died between 1603 and 1611.

Coventry council bk. passim; bk. of payments, passim; B. Poole, Coventry, 371; Coventry Leet Bk. ii. 57.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes