BAVAND, Richard (d.1603), of Chester.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

Yr. s. of Thomas Bavand of Chester by Margaret, da. and coh. of David Myddelton of Chester. m. Jane, da. and h. of Randolph Bannvile of Chester, 5s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Alderman, Chester, sheriff 1571-2, mayor 1581-2, 1600-1.

Biography

Bavand was a Chester merchant, described in 1589 as ‘ironmonger, vintner, mercer and retailer of many commodities’. He had considerable property in the city and its neighbourhood, and increased his estate by marriage to a local heiress. He held all the usual city offices in turn and served as auditor and assessor on a number of occasions. He was one of the committee set up in May 1584 to prepare for a visit from the Earl of Leicester, and in the same year represented Chester in the Commons, after a contest. Some years later he was chosen to take a letter to the Earl of Derby explaining the city’s reason for refusing office to one of the Earl’s nominees. He and one of his sons-in-law, David Lloyd, had a dispute with another citizen about licences for the leather trade which came to the notice of the Privy Council and was no doubt the reason for Bavand’s appearance before them on 30 June 1590.2

When ‘visited with sickness’ on 19 Aug. 1603, he made his will, providing each of his five sons with property, for the most part in Chester but including a messuage on the Isle of Man, the manor of Bromborough, which he held in fee farm, and lands at Hanbridge and Claverton that came to him from his wife. His fourth son Michael was away, acting as his factor on a voyage, and to him Bavand left the goods of which he was then in charge. After bequests of a number of rings to relatives and friends, including Hugh Glasier, Bavand made his son-in-law Thomas Gamull sole executor and Lewes Roberts and Edmund Gamull the supervisors. According to the inventory attached to the will, he had in his parlour a Geneva bible and a number of pictures, including one of the Queen. He died 27 Aug. and was buried in St. Werburgh’s, Chester, where an alabaster monument was erected to his memory.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. xviii), 266-7; Vis. Cheshire (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. lviii), 17; Funeral Certificates (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. vi), 12.
  • 2. Chester RO, ass. bk. and sess. bk. passim; CSP Dom. 1580-1625, p. 270; APC, xvii. 107; xix. 290.
  • 3. Cheshire Inquisitions (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. lxxxiv), 28; PCC 19 Harte; Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 195; ii. 428; Cheshire RO, Chester wills.