PANTRE, William (by 1523-62 or later), of Oxford.

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

Constituency

Dates

1555

Family and Education

b. by 1523. educ. Queen’s, Oxf.1

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Oxford 1545-6, bailiff 1554-5.2

Biography

William Pantre was evidently a kinsman of John Pantre, provost of Queen’s College from 1515, being described at one time as the provost’s scholar and at another as his servant, and perhaps also of Thomas Pantre esquire, bedel of arts. John Pantre named William an executor of his will of October 1540 and left him £8 and the residue of his estate, but Thomas Pantre’s will of May 1537 makes no mention of him.3

Pantre became a brewer and was admitted a freeman of Oxford in 1543-4. In 1545 he was assessed for subsidy on goods in the suburbs worth £20, two years later on goods in the south-west ward worth £9 and in 1559 on goods worth only £6. He played a full part in the civic life of Oxford and, like other leading citizens, he was assigned various duties which often took him to London. He was returned to Mary’s fourth Parliament with John Wayte on 24 Sept. 1555, in the last week of his bailiffship, and on 14 Oct., shortly before the Parliament met, he and Wayte were authorized to proceed in a suit of quo warranto and in other cases then pending. Two days later Wayte at least, as mayor, attended the burning of Latimer and Ridley and at an unknown date Pantre ‘received at Mr. Stanley’s hand the sum of £40 for my lord Cranmer and others in the like case’.4

On 19 June 1562 Pantre and ten others were expelled the council for their support of John Cumber in his disobedience and on the same day, and presumably for the same cause, Pantre was bound over ‘to behave himself honestly among his neighbours’. This is the last reference found to him.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. 1501-40, p. 430.
  • 2. Oxf. Recs. 178, 221.
  • 3. Oxf. Univ. Arch. B27, p. 2; T/S cal. chancellor’s ct. reg. EEE, pp. 305, 509; PCC 6 Dyngeley.
  • 4. Oxf. Recs. 174, 203, 221-3, 228, 233, 262, 268, 318; E179/162/240, 261, 318; Foxe, Acts and Mons. vii. 549.
  • 5. Oxf. Recs. 289.