Family and Education

b. by 1492.1

Offices Held

Cofferer, Bridport 1527-30, bailiff 1531-2, 1534-5, 1542-3, 1545-6, constable 1532-3.2

Biography

In 1513 Richard Furloke rented a tenement called the George from the town of Bridport: later he obtained a lease of a house in West Street. During the 1530s and 1540s he was a leading man in the town, which its inhabitants complained was suffering from unfair competition in its traditional industry of rope making, Furloke’s own craft. As one of the town’s Members in 1529 he was probably involved in the petition for the grant to Bridport of monopoly rights in the trade, which led to a private Act (21 Hen. VIII, c.12) being passed in the first session of this Parliament. This is the only hint of his activity in the House, in which he probably reappeared as a Member of the Parliament of 1536, when the King asked for the return of the previous Members, and which he may have rejoined on one or two subsequent occasions, the names of one of the Bridport Members in 1539 and of both in 1542 having been lost. The last reference to Richard Furloke in the local records dates from 8 June 1548, when he witnessed a deed of land transfer; a list of the freemen in 1549 does not include his name.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference.
• 2. Bridport doom bk. 163-205 passim; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 10 (omits as bailiff, 23 Hen. VIII).
• 3. Bridport doom bk. 135-210 passim; Bridport ms 1838; E36/17, f. 6, 29, p. 23; C1/569/29.