Family and Education

b. 1553, s. of John Hassard (d.1557), mayor of Lyme. m. Agnes, 4s. 1da.

Offices Held

Warden of the cobb ale bef. 1591; mayor, Lyme Regis 1601-2.

Biography

Hassard, cousin of John Hassard, owned property at Beer and Bridport, as well as Lyme Regis. By 1579 he was living near Colyton, Devon, where his children were born. In 1589 he was noted as part-owner of a privateer, the Foresight of Lyme Regis. As warden of the cobb ale he spent, in 1590, 23 weeks in London on behalf of the town, riding to the court, to Windsor and several times to Greenwich. He was, from 1596, frequently at loggerheads with the borough authorities. In that year, and in 1598 and 1599 the disputes were over rights of way, but by 1603 his misbehaviour was so serious that he was suspended from the position of capital burgess and charged in the Star Chamber with various illegal acts committed during his mayoralty. Restored ‘at the intercession of some honourable person’, he was expelled again in 1608 for showing favour to John Gear, ‘an unbeneficed preacher who has been the cause of great factions and divisions among us’. Hassard was again re-admitted to the corporation in 1617. In his will, made in 1627, Hassard appointed his wife Agnes executrix, and his son Peter overseer. Legacies were left to his other children, and 20s. to Gear, by this time vicar of Lyme Regis, for preaching a funeral sermon.1

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes

This biography is based upon the Roberts thesis.

• 1. H. B. Swanzy, Fam. of Hazzard, 8, 9; Devon N. and Q. iii. 144; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 48; Wards 9/138/19; HCA 13/96; G. Roberts, Hist. Lyme Regis, 361, 465; PCC 97 Skinner.