MOONE, Richard (by 1508-44/48), of Hawkchurch, Devon and Bridport, 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

Family and Education

b. by 1508, ?s. of John Moone of Ottery St. Mary, Devon. m. at least 2s. inc. Robert.2

Offices Held

Cofferer, Bridport 1533-5, 1540-1, bailiff 1535-7, 1543-4.3

Biography

Richard Moone’s offspring were to claim kinship with the Mohuns of Somerset, but their descent from their alleged progenitor, Sir John Mohun (d.1330) of Dunster, is obscure; the name of Moone’s father is not given in the visitations for Dorset, but he may have been a man living at Ottery St. Mary in 1516. Evidently Moone was of Devon origin since he owned land in and around Axminster and the first trace found of him is as resident of Hawkchurch, not long before he obtained an 81-year lease of a tenement in South Street, Bridport in June 1529. He lived in Bridport from that time, playing his part in local affairs and trading through the port of Lyme. During 1540-1 while he was cofferer for a third time Moone received 53s.4d. ‘for all charges’ as one of the town’s Members in the previous Parliament.4

The date of Moone’s death is not known; a writ was sent on 29 Sept. 1548 to the escheator of Somerset and Dorset to ascertain what lands he held in chief and who was his heir, but no return survives. Several of his friends and family deposed in 1593 that he had made a will, written by his elder son Walter (a clerk of Matthew Colthurst), but a search undertaken by them in the prerogative court of Canterbury and various provincial consistories had been unsuccessful; it was said that Moone’s younger son Robert had suppressed it while the elder was abroad. Whether a valid will had existed or not, Moone’s two sons fell out over their inheritance and their respective families took sides in the ensuing litigation which continued for several generations.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

  • 1. Bridport doom bk. 189.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg. lxxxi. 314.
  • 3. Bridport doom bk 172, 178, 190; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 10.
  • 4. New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg. lxxxi. 314; Bridport ms 44; E122/121/8, 207/6.
  • 5. CPR, 1553, p. 330; PCC 43 Daper; New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg. lxxxi. 91-92, 181-4, 314-15; C1/1146/50.