HUNT, William II, of Bedford.

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

poss. bro. of Thomas Hunt II*.

Offices Held

Mayor, Bedford 1438-9.1

Biography

Hunt was one of the burgesses, who, in 1425, appeared at Westminster before two justices of the court of common pleas to argue the case for the payment of MPs’ expenses by all the residents of Bedford, not simply those enjoying the franchise. He was accompanied by Thomas Hunt II, to whom he was almost certainly related; and, like him, he attended several of the parliamentary elections held in the borough during the first half of the 15th century. He was, indeed, named as a witness to the indentures of return in 1426, 1432, 1435, 1437, 1442, 1449 (Feb.) and 1450. In the meantime, in 1430, he was a party to a quitclaim of property in Bedford made by the eminent local lawyer, John Enderby*; and he may have been the William Hunt who sold a stone quarry at Totten Hoe, Bedfordshire, to the abbot of St. Albans at some point between 1420 and 1440.2 He is not, however, to be confused with one of Reynold, Lord Grey of Ruthin’s retainers, pardoned (as ‘William Hunt of Kempston, yeoman’) after the disturbances at the Bedford sessions house in 1439, since he was then in office as mayor and had actually to put down the riot.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

  • 1. Beds. RO, DDTW 11/170-1, 209-10, DDFN 333; Bedford Town Hall, DDX 67/54.
  • 2. Ancient Chs. and Muns. Bedford (1895), no. 20; C219/13/4, 14/3, 5, 15/1, 2, 6, 16/1; Beds. RO, DDTW 347; VCH Beds. iii. 448.
  • 3. CPR, 1436-41, p. 282.