Family and Education

b. by 1489. m. Margaret, 2s. 2da.2

Offices Held

?Sewer of the chamber by 1509-26 or later; member of guild, Reading 1510, on inner council of burgesses 1511, tax assessor 1512, constable 1514, mayor 1522-3.3

Biography

Nothing has been found to connect Nicholas Hyde with the prominent Berkshire family. As Nicholas Hyde, mercer, he paid 16s. entry fee to the guild in October 1510 and thereafter his name appears regularly in municipal and parish records until 1527. Although the corporation diary has ‘mortuus’ against his name on a list of 1520, the word was probably inserted in error later, as the stages of a straightforward municipal career which can be traced make it unlikely that there were two men. Hyde was on the list of three candidates for the mayoralty in 1520 and 1521 and was finally chosen by the abbot of Reading in September 1522. He was returned to Parliament during his term of once, a fairly common practice in Reading at this time, and was again on the list of mayoral candidates in 1526 and 1527.4

A Nicholas Hyde, sewer of the chamber, attended the funeral of Henry VII, the coronation of Henry VIII and two years later the burial of the infant Prince Henry. There is nothing to show that this was Nicholas Hyde of Reading but two other Reading townsmen who sat in Parliament during this period, Richard Smith I and Richard Justice, also held court office. A Nicholas Hyde, possibly the sewer, was granted £20 a year for life from the lordship of Christchurch, Hampshire, in 1512, was paid on the dismissal of the army which had returned from France in November 1513 and in the same year received a corrody in the abbey of Gloucester, which was in 1531 described as void by his death.5

By a will of 16 Oct. 1527 Hyde left several houses in Reading to his wife and executrix and provided for his children. He confirmed the will on 19 May 1528 and it was proved on the following 3 July. He was buried in St. Lawrence’s, Reading.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

• 1. Reading Recs. i. 145.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. PCC 35 Porch.
• 3. LP Hen. VIII, i, iv; Reading Recs. i. 116, 121, 124, 129, 144.
• 4. Reading Recs. i. 116, 141-4, 149, 150.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, i-v.
• 6. Reading Recs. i. 127; PCC 35 Porch; C. E. Kerry, St. Lawrence, Reading, 32, 119, 188-9.