Family and Education

b. by 1489, s. of John Pettifer of Chipping Wycombe by Catherine. m. Agnes, 3s. 1da. suc. fa. Feb./Mar. 1505.2

Offices Held

Mayor, Chipping Wycombe 1526-7, 1532-5, 1538-9, 1541-2, 1551-2.3

Biography

George Pettifer was a weaver of an established family in Chipping Wycombe, one of whom was bailiff there in 1490. He must have become a leading freeman by the date of his election to Parliament with Richard Birch, another townsman; both were elected on condition that they served without wages. Pettifer could afford to do so: he owned a fulling mill in the town and in 1524 he was one of the three men to be assessed for subsidy on goods worth £40, only one other being more highly rated, at 200 marks. Pettifer appears to have owned a house called the Antelope in the High Street, from which in 1556 he assigned a rent of 53s.4d. to the mayor and other burgesses. His will was made on 2 Feb. 1558 and proved on 27 Apr. in the following year by his widow Agnes and his son Christopher. He left to two of his sons, Christopher and Rowland, three tenements and meadows which probably included the mill held by Christopher in October 1559.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

• 1. First Wycombe Ledger Bk. (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), no. 61.
• 2. Presumed to be of age at election. PCC 27 Holgrave; Bucks. RO, D/A/WE/11/270.
• 3. First Wycombe Ledger Bk. nos. 88, 98; St.Ch.2/32/119; T. Langley, Hundred of Desborough, 79.
• 4. First Wycombe Ledger Bk. passim; HMC 5th Rep. 564, 565; VCH Bucks. iii. 118, 123; PCC 2 Pynnyng; Subsidy Roll for Bucks. 1524 (Bucks. Rec. Soc. viii), 28; Bucks. RO, D/A/WE/11/270.