SPRAGAT, Richard

A cordwainer, Spragat had commercial dealings well beyond Oxford, since he imported alum, one of the raw materials of his trade, through the port of Southampton.7 Brokage Bk. 1443-4, i. (Soton. Rec. Soc. iv), 109; Oxf. Studies Presented to Daniel Callus (Oxf. Historical Soc. n.s. xvi), 295. He must have run an extremely successful business, for his career as an office-holder suggests that he was a burgess of considerable wealth and local prestige. Perhaps an incomer rather than a native of Oxford,8 A William Spragat of Eton, Bucks., died in about 1416. He had a surviving brother, John, but it is not clear if he had children: PCC 37 Marche (PROB11/2B, f. 292v). the long-lived Spragat9 There is no evidence that there were two 15th-century Richard Spragats of Oxford. was active in the town by March 1426, when he witnessed a deed relating to property there.10 Cart. Oseney Abbey, ii. 211. In the early 1450s he resided in ‘Dagvile’s Inn’ in the parish of All Saints, a tenement he leased from William Dagvile*,11 Cart. Oseney Abbey, i (Oxf. Historical Soc. lxxxix), 155-6; Liber Albus, no. 289. although he also held properties in other parts of Oxford in his later years.12 Snappe’s Formulary, 224-5, 246-7; Oxon. RO, PAR189/10/1D/13; PAR214/4/E1/2-10; Surv. Oxf. i. 79; ii (Oxf. Historical Soc. n.s. xx), 116, 132; Oxf. Studies Presented to Daniel Callus, 295. It is possible that he acquired his interests in the parish of St. Michael at the South Gate from his fellow alderman, Thomas Wythigg*, whom he served as a feoffee. He did not retain all of his holdings, for in about 1474 he and his wife Joan sold a tenement and shops in Catte Street to John Bray and his wife.13 Liber Albus, nos. 217, 238.

Spragat became an alderman of Oxford shortly after serving as one of its bailiffs, and for part of 1444 he stood in as the town’s mayor, an office left vacant by the death in office of Thomas Bailey* in the autumn of the previous year. Initially, Bailey was replaced by Thomas Dagvile*. Dagville still held the mayoralty in May 1444 but he must have relinquished his responsibilities soon afterwards since Spragat is referred to as mayor in a deed of the following 24 June.14 Wood’s Surv. Antiqs. Oxf. iii. 22 and n; Hurst, 27; Cart. Oseney Abbey, ii. 211; Bodl. Top. Oxon. c. 52, f. 63. Spragat began his first full term in the mayoralty at Michaelmas 1447. Over the next 27 years, he served another eight terms in the office, several of them consecutive. He was appointed a j.p. in the autumn of 1449, and in 1454 he became one of the King’s coroners at Oxford, in place of the late Thomas Dagvile. Early in Spragat’s first term as mayor, the ‘commons’ of Oxford complained to him and the town’s other officers and councillors about the excessive feasting taking place at the elections of the chamberlains and aldermen. In response, the municipal authorities ordered that in the future each new alderman was to lodge £10 in the town’s exchequer and each newly elected chamberlain £4. By this means, those seeking the offices were to provide their community with the financial wherewithal to maintain its liberties and franchises rather than waste their money on lavish dinners. Furthermore, every new alderman, bailiff and chamberlain was to swear an oath to observe this ordinance, upon pain of losing his place on the town’s council and his status as a burgess. Each newly enfranchised burgess was to swear likewise, or face imprisonment and loss of the franchise.15 Munimenta Civitatis Oxonie (Oxf. Historical Soc. lxxi), 211. The most important event of Spragat’s third term as mayor was the King’s visit to Oxford on 8 and 9 Oct. 1451. He and his fellow burgesses had the opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty to the Crown a few months later, when they resisted the overtures of Richard, duke of York. Upon receiving copies of York’s political manifesto at the beginning of 1452, Oxford and six other southern English towns forwarded them to the King, who responded with letters ordering them to resist the duke and his supporters.16 B.P. Wolffe, Hen. VI, 254, 369; PPC, vi. 90-92.

It was not until late in Henry VI’s reign that Spragat entered his only known Parliament, the dramatic assembly in which York laid claim to the English throne. Just a month after its dissolution, the duke’s eldest son seized the throne as Edward IV. Following this coup d’état, and past demonstrations of loyalty to Henry VI notwithstanding, the Oxford authorities set about safeguarding their right to perform the service of assisting the King’s butler on coronation day. Prior to Edward’s coronation on 28 June 1461, Spragat rode with the then mayor, John Clerk, and five other leading burgesses to London, to submit a bill of claim to (Sir) John Wenlock* and Thomas Young II*, who were acting on behalf of the nominal steward of England, the King’s younger brother George. The delegation proved its case and Spragat and his fellows duly rendered the service in question.17 Recs. Med. Oxf. ed. Salter, 69-70. Spragat succeeded to a fifth term as mayor in the following autumn, although it was his predecessor, Clerk, who presided over the mayor’s court as his lieutenant (‘locum tenens’) on 6 Nov. 1461.18 Bodl. Top. Oxon. c. 440, f. 183. If not indisposed, Spragat must have been absent from the town when the court was held, raising the possibility that he was attending Edward IV’s first Parliament, which had opened two days earlier. The names of Oxford’s representatives in this assembly are unknown, but it was not unprecedented for serving mayors to gain election to the Commons.

Whatever the case, Spragat was re-elected mayor of Oxford in the autumn of 1462, and on several occasions during the early years of Edward IV’s reign he acted as a surety and arbitrator in disputes which had come before the court held in the town by the chancellor of the university.19 Registrum Cancellarii Oxoniensis, ii (Oxf. Historical Soc. xciv), 108, 112, 135, 198-9. In spite of his advanced age, he remained active in public affairs after completing his last term as mayor in September 1474. In the following December he became a member of the quorum in his capacity as a j.p. and he was still a j.p. and alderman at his death. Spragat died in April 1477 and his funeral took place in the town’s parish church of All Saints.20 Wood’s Surv. Antiqs. Oxf. iii. 24n; Bodl. Top. Oxon. c. 401, f. 22. His heir was his son Robert.