WOOD, Richard II

Wood, a merchant, is one of the least well documented of Nottingham’s MPs during the Lancastrian period, but, as demonstrated by his election as alderman, he was a burgess of some substance.3 His commercial activities are undocumented, but he is described as a merchant when a plaintiff in a debt action in 1465: CP40/817, rot. 204. Nothing is known for certain of his antecedents, although he may have been a descendant of William ‘de la Wod’, a tailor of the town in the 1390s, or of Thomas ‘de Wode’, who witnessed a Nottingham deed in 1415.4 Nottingham Recs. i. 244; ii. 404. His appointment as one of the town’s bailiffs in 1441 marks his first appearance in the records, and thereafter his career followed a pattern very similar to that of other of the town’s MPs. On 26 Apr. 1446 he sat on a jury of burgesses before royal commissioners inquiring into who was responsible for the repair of the bridge over the river Leen. In the following January he attested the borough’s parliamentary election and acted as one of the four sureties for the attendance of Thomas Babington II* and Robert Rasyn* at Parliament. He again appeared as an attestor in October 1449 before himself being returned on 26 Feb. 1453.5 Ibid. ii. 228; C219/15/4, 7; 16/2.

In September 1457 Wood was the burgesses’ choice as their mayor and it is probable that this election came only shortly after he had joined the ranks of the seven aldermen from whom the mayor was chosen. During his mayoralty he contributed 10s. to the repair of Hethbeth bridge, and as an alderman he was later called upon to make significant contributions to the financial exactions the community suffered during the military campaigns of 1460-1. In 1460 he paid 40s. towards the £23 the town sent to the aid of the King at the battle of Northampton, and in the following year £7 towards the £140 the town paid to Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset. He died soon after his second term as mayor since he was no longer an alderman on 8 July 1467 when the leading townsmen swore an oath in connexion with their dispute with Henry Pierrepont.6 Nottingham Recs. ii. 220, 381; Nottingham Archs., Nottingham recs. CA7452; Trans. Thoroton Soc. xxvi. 19.

In the subsidy returns of 1450-1 Wood was assessed on a respectable income of £6 p.a., sufficient to suggest that he may have held land outside Nottingham. If he did, it has left no trace on the records. None the less, his holdings in the town were extensive, with his chief messuage lying at the end of the bridge over the river Leen near Plumptre hospital. The settlement made by his feoffees on 24 Oct. 1468 suggests that he gave his widow at least a life interest in the bulk of his lands, perhaps because he died without issue. Alternatively, it may be that John Wood, one of the borough sheriffs in 1480-1, was his son.7 E179/238/78/6; Nottingham Univ. Lib. Middleton mss, Mi D 790; Nottingham Recs. ii. 417.