BADGER (BAGEHOTT, BAGEWORTH, BAGGOTT), William (by 1532-77/78), of Prestbury, Glos.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1532, 1st s. of William Badger alias Bagehott of Hallplace in Prestbury by Alice, da. of John Martin of Chaceley, Glos.1

Offices Held

?Bailiff, manor of Prestbury in 1543; ?servant of Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley by 1549.2

Biography

On the return for Cricklade to the Parliament of October 1553 William Badger is styled ‘junior, of Prestbury’. Like several other Members for the borough at this period, he came from an area of central Gloucestershire not far from Cricklade: his father owned a house called Overton about a mile outside Prestbury and he himself seems to have spent most of his life in that district. It was either he or his father who at some time in Henry VIII’s reign reported hearing seditious words spoken about the jurisdiction of the bishop of Hereford’s court in Prestbury, and in 1543 a William Badger was referred to as bailiff of Prestbury and a servant of the bishop. The bishop, John Skip, had been a reformer in his youth and may have helped to advance the fortunes of the Badger family, who appear to have developed Protestant sympathies in later years.3

In 1519 a William Badger, probably the father, witnessed the will of Jane, widow of Sir John Huddleston. Between the Badger home at Prestbury and Hailes, where the will was made, is Sudeley Castle, where Huddleston had been constable until 1510. It seems likely that the Badger family had some connexion with the governors and constables of this castle for a William Badger, probably the Member, was included in a list of servants of Admiral Seymour drawn up in 1549. It is headed ‘men meet for my lord’s grace’ and is probably a list of men who were to be taken into the Duke of Somerset’s household after the execution of his brother. Badger may have entered the duke’s service but if he did so he probably remained in Gloucestershire, close to his home. If the Badger family retained its connexion with Sudeley, it is likely that Sir John Brydges, constable from 1538, influenced his return, for the Brydges family held manors and lands at Blunsdon, Purton and Stratton near Cricklade. The Seymours could also have supported their former servant, although their influence in the borough had been much diminished by the escheat to the crown of their lands there on the attainders of the Duke of Somerset and Admiral Seymour.4

Badger is marked as having ‘stood for the true religion’ in the Parliament of October 1553. Apart from his connexions with the Seymours and Bishop Skip, Badger’s brother George had married the niece of John Wakeman alias Wiche, who had secured his election as last abbot of Tewkesbury in 1534 with the help of Sir William Kingston and Cromwell and had been consecrated first bishop of Gloucester in 1541. It is interesting to note that William Malvern alias Parker, the last abbot of St. Peter’s, Gloucester, who is said to have been elected as first bishop of the new see but to have died before being installed, was the uncle of Thomas Parker I, Badger’s fellow-Member. However, both Wakeman and Malvern were dead by 1549 and as there is no evidence that the bishop of Gloucester influenced parliamentary elections in Cricklade, the connexion may be fortuitous.5

It is difficult to distinguish the Member from his father who survived his son by a few months: neither seems to have been very active in the affairs of the county. The family may have been related by marriage to Hugh Westwood, who in November 1542 was joint tenant of two manors near Prestbury with Elizabeth, widow of one Roger Badger and wife of William Pinnock. The Badgers were probably of the same family as Thomas Bagarde, vicar-general to the bishop of Worcester from 1532, who may have introduced them into ecclesiastical administration. The William Badger who, according to lists drawn up in 1552/53 and 1555, was entitled to a yearly pension of 40s. from the dissolved abbey of Winchcombe, could have been the Member or his father. 1n February 1561 the son acquired the leases of the rectories of Badminton and Barrington, Gloucestershire, and in February 1565 that of Puckham woods near Sevenhampton in the same county. His patent for Badminton was surrendered in November 1570 and regranted to his brothers George and Giles.6

The will of William Badger junior, dated 27 Oct. 1577, is badly torn. He bequeathed his soul to God and his body to be buried near his grandfather in the church at Prestbury. He left his leases to his father. He probably died within a few weeks and was certainly dead by 14 Jan. 1578, when his father made his own will.7

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Elizabeth McIntyre

Notes

  • 1. Presumed to be of age at election. Gloucester consist. ct. wills 1578; Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 59, 223.
  • 2. HMC Bath, iv. 109, 129.
  • 3. C219/21/171; Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. xiv. 269; LP Hen. VIII, add.; HMC Bath, iv. 129; DNB (Skip, John).
  • 4. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. xlviii. 131; HP ed. Wedgwood. 1439-1509 (Biogs.), 477; HMC Bath, iv. 109; DKR, ix. 175-6.
  • 5. Bodl. e Museo 17; Vis. Glos. 174; DNB (Wakeman alias Wiche, John); Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. vii. 34; LP Hen. VIII, xiv; N. and Q. (ser. 11), xi, 106; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. 1501-40, p. 20.
  • 6. LP Hen. VIII, vii, xvi, xviii; Fac. Off. Reg. 1534-49, ed. Chambers, 162; Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. xxix. 115; xlix. 101; CPR, 1560-3, pp. 66-67, 204; 1569-72, pp. 55, 255.
  • 7. Gloucester consist. ct. wills 1578.