GAPPUTH (GAPPER, GAPWORTH), John (by 1519-55 or later), of Shaftesbury, Dorset.

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
Apr. 1554
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1519.3

Offices Held

?Mayor, Shaftesbury 1545-6.4

Biography

John Gapputh, misnamed John Baputhe, stands first in the list of Shaftesbury men mustered in 1539; he appeared with a pair of almain rivets and a bill. In the musters of 1542 Gapputh was described as a billman, having armour for one man. In 1540 he leased a fulling mill and other property from John Mathew. A plaintiff suing Gapputh (whom he called Gapper) in Chancery before the death of Henry VIII alleged that he was a man ‘of substance and well friended’, but this was perhaps an exaggeration since affluence is not reflected in his low assessment of 3s.4d. towards the benevolence in 1544/45. He was probably the John Garputs who was mayor of Shaftesbury in 1545-6, and he certainly assisted other mayors in the exercise of their authority during the late 1540s and early 1550s. In 1544-7 John Cabput of Shaftesbury, mercer, sued one Richard Horder for failing to return deeds entrusted to him three years before: probably this was yet another variation on Gapputh. His Membership accords well with his municipal interests and career and with Queen Mary’s declared preference for townsmen-Members. He probably owed the opportunity to sit for Shaftesbury to the temporary eclipse of the Herbert family, which following on Sir Thomas Arundell’s execution left the town free to choose whom it pleased. The date of Gapputh’s death has not been discovered.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

  • 1. Gapputh’s christian name which has been torn off the indenture, C219/21/54, has been supplied from the Crown Office list for this Parliament, Bodl. e Museo 17.
  • 2. Huntington Lib. Hastings mss Parl. pprs.
  • 3. Date of birth estimated from his lease of 1540.
  • 4. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 15.
  • 5. Ibid. iii. 15; E36/29, pp. 100, 134; 179/104/163; C1/823/43-44, 1114/1; Reg. 2/10/133; St.Ch.4/10/10.