Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Brice was probably a kinsman of Philip and John Brice, the former of whom had sat for Weymouth in the Parliaments of 1390 (Jan.) and 1391, the latter in 1399. After representing that borough and then its neighbour, Melcombe Regis, he appeared as a witness to the indenture recording the shire elections held at Dorchester in 1426 and 1427, and two years later he found mainprise for the attendance at Westminster of the newly elected knights of the shire, Ralph Bush* and John Newburgh†, junior.2 It may have been the same John Brice who, as ‘of Wimbourne Minster, yeoman’, by 1430 had married Joan, widow of William Lake of Sturminster Marshall, and was still living in 1462.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

HP, ed. Wedgwood, 1439-1509, Biogs. 128, has identified this John Brice with the Taunton MP of 1442, but no evidence has been found of a connexion between the Weymouth family and its Somerset namesake. A John Brice attended the Somerset elections of 1414, 1420 and 1421 (C219/11/3, 12/4, 5).

• 1. As ‘junior’ .
• 2. C219/13/4, 5, 14/1.
• 3. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. lxv. 102.