DUDESTON (DODSON, DUTSON), Henry (by 1525-80), of Hereford.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1525. m. Margaret.1

Offices Held

Mayor, Hereford 1562-3.2

Biography

Henry Dudeston is first glimpsed in 1546, when he was assessed for taxation in the Bystreets ward of Hereford as possessing £15 worth of goods. In 1559 he sued out a general pardon, describing himself as a draper and an ironmonger; his pursuit of the first of these occupations is illustrated by his provision, when the president and the council in the marches visited Hereford in 1557, of ‘a long table cloth, a towel and a dozen napkins’ for the president’s use. He was probably already holding civic office when, towards the close of that year, he was elected to Parliament with John Gibbs, who was to precede him as mayor. One of the knights for Herefordshire on this occasion was Gregory Price, son of Sir John Price whose will Dudeston had witnessed in 1555.3

Like many others on the Hereford council, Dudeston was a Catholic; he was noted as such on Bishop Scory’s return to the Privy Council in 1564, and five years later the Herefordshire justices reported that he and Thomas Havard had refused to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity. On 13 Mar. 1580 he made a nuncupative will before a number of witnesses. Half his goods he left to his wife in addition to those which he was bound to leave to her; the other half of his goods was to go to Anne Connesbie, daughter of George Connesbie (or Coningsby) and probably his niece, who was to make provision out of it for her brothers, sisters and father. Letters of administration were granted to the widow and to Anne Connesbie on 21 June 1580, but from a marginal note in the probate register it appears that the will was declared invalid in 1584.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. PCC 23 Arundell.
  • 2. R. Johnson, Anct. Customs, Hereford, 233.
  • 3. E179/117/162; CPR, 1558-60, p. 185; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 325; NLW Jnl. ix. 257.
  • 4. Cam. Misc. ix(3), 15; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 353; PCC 23 Arundell.