Family and Education

?s. or other rel. of George Hurdman, mayor of Hereford 1584. m., 3s. 2da.

Offices Held

Common councilman, Hereford by 1576, mayor 1580-1, 1602-3.

Biography

Like many of his fellow citizens, Hurdman was a suspected Catholic. During his first mayoralty, he and one John Brenton were reported to the council in the marches for using ‘certain lewd speeches’ in support of the Jesuit Campion. The Privy Council appointed a commission to collect information and summoned Hurdman before them on 28 Jan. 1581. The case was remitted to the council in the marches on 31 Jan. and Hurdman may thenceforth have conformed, as his name was not included in a list of sympathizers in the county drawn up by a Catholic in 1581, and there is no trace of Catholic beliefs in the will he made on 10 Mar. 1604, proved 7 July. He was not active in the 1601 Parliament, but he may have attended a committee to which the burgesses for Hereford were appointed concerning two Welsh lordships (24 Nov.). He asked to be buried at Hereford near his wife, and left sums ranging from £100 to £200 to his younger children and most of his lands (which included the lordship of Garrack in Radnor) to his eldest son Philip, the executor.

J. Duncomb, Herefs. i. 367; APC, xiii. 193, 245-6, 315, 322; D’Ewes, 650; Cath. Rec. Soc. xiii. 127; PCC 71, 72 Harte.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

• 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.