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BRYAN (BRYAND), alias CROKER, Richard (by 1508-32), of Lostwithiel, Cornw. and Lincoln's Inn, London.
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. by 1508. educ. L. Inn, adm. 6 Nov. 1529.2
Offices Held
Biography
Three days after Richard Bryan had taken his place in the Commons as the junior Member for Lostwithiel he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn. His entry upon the study of law and his election to Parliament may alike have sprung from the need to protect his inheritance in eastern Cornwall, which had been subject to disputes, forcible entries and litigation since 1522. Nothing is known about his contribution to the work of the House, but he evidently pressed his claims outside it, transferring to Chancery an action which had not succeeded previously in the Star Chamber. His Membership and his legal career were both brought to a swift end. On 31 May 1532, two weeks after the fourth session of Parliament had ended, he made his will at Lincoln’s Inn, ‘being very sore sick ... and in jeopardy of death’. After small bequests to the steward of the inn and several others, he left the residue of his estate to his uncle, Edward Bryan alias Croker, the sole executor. The property which he had sought to defend, some ten messuages and 630 acres, should have passed to his two sisters but they were forestalled by the uncle against whom they had to petition the lord chancellor. The speed with which the will was proved—it took only three days—shows that Bryan was struck down suddenly, doubtless by the epidemic which took such a heavy toll at the inns of court in the course of 1532. Who replaced him for the remaining sessions of the Parliament is not known.3