Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Wallingford Mich. 1398-9, 1410-11, 1421-2.1

Biography

Deffont, a shoemaker by trade, is first mentioned in 1384, when he was amerced before a local court for being a ‘great breaker of the peace, day and night’ and for having stolen three pairs of shoes. Apparently a somewhat lawless individual, he was again fined in 1394 for causing an affray and insulting Robert Oxenford*, a fellow shoemaker, and in 1400 for coming to blows with John Denby I*. In 1401 he was accused of committing ‘hamsoken’ and assault on one Tyler, and of being ‘a great rebel against the mayor’. Despite these vagaries Deffont was three times bailiff, and he witnessed the parliamentary returns of 1410, 1413 (May) and 1421.2 By July 1425 he had died, leaving William Hende* and William Bodyngton* to act as his executors.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

In 1401-2 a Robert Deffont ‘junior’ is mentioned, but in one record only (Berks. RO, W/JBb/58). In the absence of other evidence, the MP of 1414 has been assumed to be Deffont ‘senior’.

• 1. Boarstall Cart. (Oxf. Hist. Soc. Lxxxviii), nos. 832, 833; Berks. RO, W/FR/7; C219/12/6; Bodl. Ch. Berks. 131.
• 2. Berks. RO, W/JBb/53-55, 58; C219/10/5, 11/2, 12/5, 6.
• 3. Boarstall Cart. no. 839.