Family and Education

m. by 1377, Maud.

Offices Held

Commr. to search Dartmouth for illegal shipments of gold and silver Dec. 1364; fortify Dartmouth and Kingswear Nov. 1381.

Tax collector, Devon Nov. 1377, May 1379.

Mayor, Dartmouth Mich 1386-7.1

Biography

In October 1372, as a parishioner of Townstall residing in Dartmouth, Brasuter was party to a quadripartite indenture drawn up between Bishop Brantingham of Exeter, the abbot and convent of Toore, the vicar of Townstall and the townsmen of Dartmouth, whereby arrangements were made for the foundation of a church at Dartmouth for the convenience of the inhabitants, whose attendance at the mother church had declined owing to its distance from the town and the steep climb in between. He was assessed at Dartmouth for the poll tax of 1377 along with his wife and one servant, and was probably then living in a house off ‘Pynyslane’ (Horn Hill). His trading concerns included shipments overseas from Dartmouth, not to mention dealings up-river with the burgesses of Totnes. He probably acquired property in this town, too, for it was as ‘of Totnes’ that he was returned to Parliament in 1382, and it was perhaps he who gave ‘Brassiter’s well’ to the local community.2 Last recorded in 1393, he died before 1409.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. H.R. Watkin, Dartmouth, 184.
• 2. Ibid. 285-6; E179/95/35; E122/158/26; Watkin, 81; Trans. Devon Assoc. xliii. 136. It is possible that he was related to John Austin of Totnes whose heir, Henry Austin*, used the alias of Brasuter. John, who had been reeve and mayor of Totnes in the 1350s, was still alive in 1386.
• 3. Watkin, 92.