Family and Education

s. of William Breinton*. m. by Nov. 1424, Agnes,1 ?1s. Thomas†.

Offices Held

Mayor, Hereford Oct. 1430-4.2

Biography

In 1411 Breinton stood bail at Hereford for a defendant in a suit before the j.p.s. Later, in 1416, he witnessed deeds in the city, and in the following year he became a feoffee of property in ‘le Oldescolestrete’, conveyed by Thomas Walwyn I* of Stoke Edith. When his mother died in 1419 he was made responsible for the administration of her will. Already a figure of some account locally, in July that year he was included by Sir John Chandos* among the feoffees-to-uses of his Herefordshire castle, manor and lordship of Snodhill, a duty which he relinquished, however, in April 1420. Before the end of Henry V’s reign Breinton was sued for debt in the court of King’s bench by the prior of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England; he evidently failed to answer the charges, subsequently, in February 1427, taking out a royal pardon of outlawry for not appearing to defend himself. In the meantime, he attended the shire elections held in Hereford castle for the Parliament of 1423, just before his own fifth election for the city. In November following he was enfeoffed of lands in the lordship of Weobley, including the manors of The Ley and Sarnesfield, which he and his co-feoffee Richard de la Mare† conveyed to Thomas Bromwich in August 1424. The same year he was similarly entrusted with ‘Wydemersshe portefeld’ in the suburbs of Hereford. In 1427 Breinton was again associated with de la Mare in transactions concerning property in the city, and by June 1431 he had taken on the trusteeship of the manor of Dymock, Gloucestershire, on behalf of John Merbury*, the former chamberlain and justiciar of South Wales.3

Breinton was present at the parliamentary elections held at Hereford in 1429, and he attested those of 1431, 1432 and 1433 by authority of his position as mayor, which office he held for four consecutive years. It was during his last term as mayor that he was required to take the general oath of May 1434, promising not to assist anyone who disturbed the peace. For the previous ten years Breinton had been acquiring property in Herefordshire and by now, as well as houses and gardens in ‘Oldescolestrete’, Hereford (some of which he had purchased from the widow of John Falk*), he held lands, obtained through marriage, in Yarpole and Orleton (five miles north of Leominster). He also had landed interests across the county border with Shropshire, at Richard’s Castle. He probably died soon after August 1436, when he instructed his attorneys to deliver seisin of all his Hereford holdings to trustees.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants: Braynton, Breynton.

• 1. CP25(1)292/65/30; CAD, vi. C6631.
• 2. J. Duncumb, Hist. Herefs. i. 365.
• 3. E131/15/1; Hereford City Lib. MT/V/3, 4; CAD, i. C316; iii. A5974, C3494; vi. C6631; CCR, 1419-22, pp. 131, 134; CPR, 1416-22, p. 238; 1422-9, p. 372; 1429-36, pp. 141, 281-2; CP25(1)83/54/3, 11; C219/13/2.
• 4. C219/14/1-4; CPR, 1429-36, p. 377; CAD, i. C172, 315; vi. C4329, 6419, 6504, 6538; CP25(1)292/65/30. The lawyer Thomas Breinton, MP for Hereford in 1449 (Nov.) and mayor of the city in 1462-3, 1465-6 and 1470-1, was probably George’s son.