Family and Education

prob. s. of John Geoffrey^† by Alice, wid. of Thomas Mytton of Shrewsbury.1 m. bef. 1392, Alice? Lynley, 3s.2

Offices Held

Bailiff, Shrewsbury Sept. ?1386-7, 1392-3, 1396-7; assessor 1403-4.3

Biography

Geoffrey’s family had been established in Shrewsbury since the 13th century. His putative father represented the town in Parliament in 1363, 1369 and 1378, held office as bailiff in 1369-70, 1374-5 and 1377-8, and was one of the council of 12 in 1381-3.4 It is more likely to have been the younger John Geoffrey who occupied the bailiffship in 1386-7 and appeared as a member of the new council set up at Shrewsbury abbey in the presence of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, on 16 Aug. 1389. During his second term as bailiff, Geoffrey was jointly responsible on 21 Sept. 1392 for completing, on the community’s behalf and at the earl’s request, an agreement allowing the local Austin Friars to enclose certain lands outside the walls in return for two acres and a stone quarry recently purchased from Geoffrey himself. He occasionally witnessed local conveyances before being returned for the borough to Parliament during his final term as bailiff. He was present at a special meeting of the Shrewsbury guild merchant on 20 Dec. 1397, the occasion of the admission to the guild of his three sons.5 In September 1404 Geoffrey conveyed two plots of land in the fields behind Shrewsbury castle to William Tour (brother of Simon*), receiving in return an annual rent of 26s.8d. for term of his life. It was in right of his wife that in 1405, he presented to ‘Baldwin’s’ chantry in St. Chad’s church.6 There is insufficient evidence to establish whether it was this John Geoffrey who, described as a fletcher, was hit on the head with a stick by one John Walker in Dogpole, Shrewsbury, on 21 July 1409, and subsequently died, although the MP is not recorded thereafter. In 1424 some of his Shrewsbury property was in the possession of the heirs of David Holbache*.7

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants; Jeffray, Jeffrey.

• 1. Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xiii. 86.
• 2. Thomas Lynley of Shrewsbury referred to Geoffrey as ‘fratris mei’, and may therefore have been his brother-in-law: Add. 30321, ff. 43, 44.
• 3. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 1), iii. 240-1; Shrewsbury Guildhall box II 67, f. 11d.
• 4. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), iv. 224, 231; vii. 317; Shrewbury Lib. deeds 185, 3743-6; CPR, 1381-5, p. 2.
• 5. H. Owen and J.B. Blakeway, Hist. Shrewsbury, i. 172; ii. 454; CPR, 1396-9, pp. 472-5; Shrewsbury Lib. deed 2725; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), v. 40; xlvii. 63-64.
• 6. Add. 30321, ff. 28, 118; Shrewsbury Lib. deed 3914; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), xii. 157.
• 7. JUST 2/145 m. 8; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. liv. 93.