SHAWE, John I (d.1407), of Oxford.

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

Sept. 1388

Family and Education

m. bef. 1380, Maud, prob. 1s. John II*; ?(2) Margaret.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Oxford Mich. 1377-8; coroner 1386-95, bef. Nov. 1405 and at d.; alderman Mich. 1391-5, 1396-1406; mayor 1395-6.2

Commr. of arrest, Oxford July 1378.

Biography

When a young man in 1361, Shawe allegedly broke into the property of John Gibbes at Oxford, with other malefactors, and made off with timber and masonry. Elected bailiff in 1377, he and his colleague Thomas Somerset*, were ordered by the government to repair the town defences, and also, again in their official capacity, to serve on a royal commission set up to assist the prior of St. Frideswide against his disobedient canons. He paid 6s.8d., a comparatively large sum, towards the poll tax of 1380, at which time he was employing three domestic servants. Evidently, his trade as a fishmonger was flourishing. Four years later, with John Hickes* and other burgesses, he was required to give security that no harm would be done to the warden or scholars of Merton college, with whom the commonalty had a longstanding quarrel.3 One of the borough coroners by 1386, Shawe sat in the Cambridge Parliament of 1388 while holding this office; and he continued to discharge his duties at least until 1395, and possibly without a break until 1405, when his removal from the coronership was ordered on the grounds of age and sickness. Evidently, however, he was either not dismissed or was re-appointed, for he was still coroner at the time of his death in 1407.4

A resident of the south-west ward of Oxford, living next to Gloucester Hall, Shawe also owned premises in the north-east ward, including Laurence Hall. In 1389 he joined in a grant to Osney abbey of a messuage in All Saints’ parish, for which he had earlier obtained a royal licence. John Shawe II was probably his son, for he succeeded him in possession of his property.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

  • 1. Oxf. Hist. Soc. xviii. 16; Reg. Repingdon (Lincoln Rec. Soc. lvii), 113.
  • 2. CCR, 1405-9, pp. 7, 200; Oxf. Hist. Soc. xxxvii. 17, 19; lxiv. no. 383; lxxxi. no. 156; lxxxix. no. 446; xc. no. 770; c. 146; Recs. Med. Oxf. ed. Salter, 47-50; Univ. Coll. hustings roll, 1a.
  • 3. CPR, 1361-4, p. 71; CCR, 1377-81, p. 51; 1381-5, pp. 451-2; Oxf. Hist. Soc. xviii. 16.
  • 4. CCR, 1405-9, p. 200.
  • 5. CPR, 1381-5, p. 549; Oxf. Hist. Soc. lxxiii. 10; lxxxix. nos. 448-9; ser. 2, xiv. 35; xx. 100.