MORE, Thomas I (d.1421), of Gloucester.

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

Nov. 1414

Family and Education

m. (1) Maud; (2) bef. Nov. 1400, Margery.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Gloucester Mich. 1413-15.1

Biography

There were two contemporaries of this name living in Gloucester, a mercer and a weaver, and it was the latter who took out a royal pardon in March 1398. The MP, however, was certainly the mercer, being so described in the writ by which he was first returned to Parliament. The two were quite possibly related, for, in March 1414 when the mercer was a bailiff, he granted, with the assent of the commonalty, a plot of land in ‘Shepynlane’ to Thomas More ‘webbe’, his wife Joan and their son Roger. While still in office later that year he and Roger Ball* were responsible for holding the borough election which resulted in More’s own return to the autumn Parliament. On 25 Jan. following, the collectors of two fifteenths granted by this Parliament certified that More and Ball had fully paid the town’s first instalment of £54. Immediately after relinquishing office at the end of two consecutive annual terms as bailiff, More was re-elected, that is, to the Westminster Parliament which assembled on 4 Nov. 1415.2

In the previous year More sold a messuage, a mill, land and rents in ‘Wydeford’, Gloucestershire, together with the advowson of the church there, all of which may well have come to him through his second marriage. Before his death he acquired an interest in property in Abingdon, Berkshire. It was most probably he who owned the St. George Inn in Southgate Street, Gloucester, which was sold by his heirs to another mercer, Robert Jackman, before 1455.3 By his will, made on 17 Apr. 1421, More requested burial in the local church of the Dominican friars and made small bequests to the Franciscans and Carmelites to provide prayers after his death for himself, his former wife, his parents and his widow. The last named was to receive £160, and she acted, along with John Bisley II* and Robert Gilbert II*, as executrix. More died before 6 Oct.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. Gloucester Corporation Recs. ed. Stevenson, 1073, 1076; C115/K2/6682, ff. 74-75.
  • 2. Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1073, 1076, 1078, 1081; C67/30 m. 27; C219/11/4.
  • 3. CP25(1)79/86/7; Gloucester Rental 1455 ed. Cole, 12.
  • 4. PCC 52 Marche.