Family and Education

?s. of Adam Duddesden of Wells. m. by 1419, Cecily.

Offices Held

Constable of the peace, Wells Mich. 1393-4.1

Biography

Duddesden was an insignificant figure even in his home town of Wells. He became a freeman in 1379 (with John Blithe* and Thomas Tanner* providing pledges on his behalf), but appears to have had little to do with the administration of the borough, save at Michaelmas 1392, when he was elected to the master’s council, and in 1403 when he was appointed as a local tax collector. He attested only one parliamentary election indenture for Wells (at Ilchester in May 1413).2 Duddesden was assessed for alnage on 18 ‘dozens’ sold in Somerset between 1395 and 1397, and on ten broad cloths produced in 1402-3. He is not recorded after Easter 1419 on which occasion he and his wife made an enfeoffment of their toft, 16 acres of arable land and two acres of wood in ‘Dodesdene’ in Wells.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants: Doddesdene, Dudesdene.

• 1. Wells Town Clerk’s Office, convoc. bk. 1378-1450, f. 107.
• 2. Convoc. bk. ff. 103, 153; Wells City Chs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xlvi), 125; C219/11/2.
• 3. E101/343/28, 30, 344/3, 4; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 54.