Family and Education

m. Christine, 1da.

Offices Held

Collector of customs and subsidies, Melcombe Regis 28 Nov. 1411-12.

Bailiff, Weymouth Mich. 1414-15.1

Biography

Wydeford was customer of Melcombe Regis for only a few months, having been appointed more than a year before his return by the neighbouring port of Weymouth to Henry V’s first Parliament. His trading interests are suggested by a pardon of outlawry, dated October 1420, for failing to answer charges of debt brought by a London fishmonger, and by another granted in 1423 regarding his own unsuccessful suit against a Shaftesbury brewer. He was one of four delegates who were to report at the county court the results of the Weymouth elections to the Parliaments of 1425, 1426, 1427, 1429, 1432 and 1435, and in 1429 he also attended the elections for the shire. witnessed deeds at Weymouth in 1430 and 1434.2 It is not known what property he held in that town, but he did possess a house in West Street, Dorchester, which, by his will drawn up on 12 Nov. 1437 and later exhibited in part in the Dorchester borough court, was left to his daughter, Agnes. Wydeford, who asked to be buried in All Saints’ church, Wyke Regis, left 2s.6d. to every priest in the parish, 12d. to the parish clerk and 2d. each to the 12 pallbearers.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. E368/187.
• 2. CPR, 1416-22, p. 287; 1422-9, p. 29; C219/13/3-5, 14/1, 3, 5; C146/6110, 6374.
• 3. Recs. Dorchester ed. Mayo, 285-6.