SHAPLEGH, Roger

Shaplegh was born, probably in the first half of the reign of Richard II, as the youngest of four surviving sons of one of the most prominent men of Exeter. Their father, a prosperous cloth merchant, had regularly held both town and Crown office between 1386 and 1408 and his sons and their offspring were to follow in his footsteps.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 347. Roger was apprenticed to his father, and on completion of his apprenticeship in February 1397 was admitted to the freedom of the city.3 Exeter Freemen ed. Rowe and Jackson, 37; Exeter mayors’ ct. roll 20-21 Ric. II, rot. 22. Like his father and brothers, he sought his fortune in the cloth trade with France and became a merchant of the staple of Exeter, although he apparently never traded on quite the same scale as his elder brother John.4 E101/338/11; C244/131/4; Trans. Devon Assoc. xliv. 582. Consequently, his political weight within Exeter also remained limited, and unlike his more important kinsmen he never held city office. He did however on occasion appear alongside his relatives among the 36 citizens who elected the mayor, stewards and common council.5 Exeter mayors’ ct. rolls 1-2, 6-7, 8-9 Hen. V, 18-19 Hen. VI.

For much of the 1420s the parliamentary representation of Exeter was heavily dominated by the Shapleghs, and there can be little doubt that it was the influence of his more prominent relatives to whom Roger owed his return to Parliament in 1427 alongside his nephew John, for whom he had stood surety earlier that year.6 Ibid. 5-6 Hen. VI, rot. 40d. Another factor may have been his readiness to serve for moderate wages: the Parliament proved to be an unusually protracted one, lasting for two sessions of almost 17 weeks’ duration, and between them the two Shapleghs received just £11 13s. 4d. in wages (about half of what they might have claimed by custom).7 Exeter receiver’s acct. 6-7 Hen. VI, m. 2. Following his spell in the Commons Shaplegh returned to his former obscurity. At Michaelmas 1431 he took the petty custom on foreigners to farm from the city authorities, but otherwise disappears almost entirely from the records. He nevertheless lived on for a few more years and is last recorded as an elector at the mayoral elections of 1439.8 Exeter mayors’ ct. rolls 10-11 Hen. VI, rot. 1d, 18-19 Hen. VI, rot. 1.