Family and Education

b. by 1504, ?s. of Richard Trotter of Bridgwater, Som. m. 1525, Margery, da. of John Drew of Bridgwater, wid. of Thomas Lyte of Lytes Cary, Som.2

Offices Held

Collector of customs, Bridgwater by 1526-d.; escheator, Som. and Dorset 1535-d.; auditor, commission for tenths of spiritualities, Som. 1535.3

Biography

Hugh Trotter may have been a son or grandson of Richard and Denise Trotter who were living in Bridgwater in 1469: his own marriage allied him with one of the main families of the town and also with Sir Nicholas Wadham, the junior knight for Somerset in 1529. He was thus well placed when an opportunity to sit in Parliament arose through the recent appointment of the recorder of Bridgwater, Baldwin Malet, as solicitor-general, an office which precluded him from election. Both Trotter and his fellow-Member Henry Thornton were, or were to become, customs officials, while Trotter’s close association with his neighbour Sir Andrew Luttrell, who in 1538 was to provide for an obit in Bridgwater for himself, his parents and Trotter, could hardly fail to have been an advantage, Luttrell being sheriff of Somerset and Dorset at the time of the election.4

Trotter died intestate at some time between his appointment as escheator in November 1535 and the following 7 Apr., when Alexander Popham was granted the office; the date of his replacement in it, a week before the end of the last session of the Parliament, suggests that Trotter died during that session. On his deathbed he stated that he would have none but Cromwell as his executor. After Edward North had reported to Thomas Rush that Trotter had been worth £400 and that there was money concealed in his study, Cromwell sent his servant Thomas Parry to Bridgwater to wind up his estate, to settle his accounts as customer and to stop his stepson Thomas Lyte from removing such property as might be the King’s. Parry was to become involved in a chancery suit with Lyte over the administration.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: A. D.K. Hawkyard

Notes

• 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from marriage. Bridgwater Bor. Archives, v. (Som. Rec. Soc. lxx), 2-3; Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Proc. xxxviii. 32; Collinson, Som. iii. 193; E130/911/1.
• 3. E122/27/10, 200/1; LP Hen. VIII, viii.
• 4. Bridgwater Bor. Archives, v. 2-3; Bridgwater corp. ms 1437; LP Hen. VIII, i-iv; T. G. Jacks, Wadham College, 27-28; PCC 19 Dyngeley, 15 Spert.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, ix; C1/1139/49-50; Som. and Dorset N. and Q. vii. 111.