HALLE, William atte, of Wycombe, Bucks.

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

Family and Education

m. bef. 1394, Isabel.

Offices Held

Mayor, Wycombe Mich. 1403-4.

Biography

Atte Halle is first recorded in 1394, when he conveyed a small farm in Wycombe, the property of his wife, to William atte Dene*, William Depham* and others. Six years later, in June 1400, the vicar of Windsor undertook to go bail for him and six more should they be arrested following an accusation that they had threatened two chaplains forcing them to flee from Wycombe in fear of their lives. Nor was this the only time atte Halle was in trouble with the authorities. In September 1404, towards the end of his mayoralty, a royal commission was set up to investigate reports that he had gathered together 160 men ‘of his affinity’ to rise in insurrection against William Saunderton of West Wycombe, whose property they had burnt down.1

In 1408 atte Halle witnessed a local deed, and in 1410 he and William Clerk II* purchased a sizeable estate near the town. Two years later he served as a juror at an assize of novel disseisin brought by Clerk against a local landowner, Ralph atte Lude. He attended the Wycombe parliamentary election in May 1413, the year before his own return. Atte Halle was still living in 1421, when he was still in occupation of 26 acres of agricultural land called ‘Crossfurlong’ in the manor of Bassetsbury, which he had held for several years at an annual rent of 26s.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

  • 1. CP25(1)21/109/5; CCR, 1399-1402, p. 193; CPR, 1401-5, p. 437.
  • 2. CCR, 1405-9, p. 467; CP25(1)22/114/15; DL29/652/10554; SC6/764/12, 13; JUST 1/1/79/5; C219/11/1.