Family and Education

m. Alice, 1s. John^†.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Worcester Mich. 1395-6.1

Biography

Richard was possibly a son of the city’s parliamentary representative of 1362, Robert Hayle or Hall, a butcher by trade who was imprisoned in the Fleet in the summer of 1378 on charges of debt. Another of the family, Walter, served as a bailiff of Worcester in 1381-2.2Richard Halle was himself described on occasion as a butcher, but his principal concerns were with the local cloth industry. In January 1397 he attended the city’s parliamentary elections, then providing securities for the appearance of the two representatives. Twice in the following year he took out royal pardons, but they need not necessarily have had anything to do with the political upheavals of the time; more likely they related to suits brought by his creditors. Halle was among a group of leading citizens of Worcester who, in September 1399, undertook the confirmation of earlier local charters. After three times serving in Parliament, he again attended the elections for the city in May 1413, November 1414 and November 1415, on this last occasion finding mainprise for John Wood I.3

Halle died before August 1423, when his widow and their son, John, already established as a citizen and grocer of London, conveyed some of his property, including lands outside the Foregate, Worcester, to John and Richard Baret.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. Worcester Chs. (Worcs. Hist. Soc. 1909), 46, 193.
• 2. CPR, 1377-81, pp. 300, 305.
• 3. E101/345/11; C219/9/12, 11/2, 5, 7; C67/30 mm. 10, 29; Worcester Chs. 166.
• 4. Collectanea (Worcs. Hist. Soc. 1912), 36.