BETHEWATER, Richard, of Bedford.

Bethewater was a mainpernor for Thomas Frereman, one of the Bedford burgesses returned to the Parliament of 1385. He appears on the Bedford burgess roll of 1399, and was probably still living in the town in October 1408, when he witnessed a deed there. He may well be the Richard atte Water, who, in 1387, together with William Clerevaux and William Cotterstock, obtained a quitclaim of land in Renhold, Bedfordshire, from John Grey II. If this identification is correct, he also joined with other burgesses of Bedford in making an endowment of land to Newnham priory three years later.1C219/8/12; CP25(1)5/69/16; C.F. Farrar, Old Bedford, 111; Beds. RO, DDW18; CPR, 1388-92, p. 255.