STRENSHAM, John, of Gloucester.

It may well have been this John Strensham who was engaged in the manufacture of cloth in Gloucester in 1397-8, for before too long he was selected as one of the four stewards, and he regularly witnessed local conveyances from that date for over a period of 20 years. In October 1412 Strensham was made a trustee of the property in Gloucester once belonging to Magota Bele, on condition that the income should go to the hospital of St. Bartholomew.1E101/339/2; Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1069, 1071-2, 1078-9, 1091, 1108. Seven months later he was representing the borough in Parliament. At Easter 1417 he served as a juror at an assize of novel disseisin held in Gloucester, and in September 1419 he became bailiff for the first of possibly six annual terms. Having attended the election of the knights of the shire held in the county court meeting at Gloucester in 1415, in October 1419 he was responsible (along with his fellow bailiff) for supervising the selection of the parliamentary burgesses. Then, at the very end of his second term in office, on 4 Oct. 1423, he and John Bisley II completed the return for the borough which named he himself as a burgess-elect, although he was no longer a bailiff when the Commons actually assembled. Strensham was again present at the shire court for the elections of 1425, 1427 and I433, on the last occasion being accompanied by his son, Robert.2C219/11/6, 12/3, 13/2-5; Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1085-7; Gloucester Guildhall, roll 1353; C115/K2/6682, f. 104d. During his final term as bailiff he and his colleague, Richard Dalby, reached agreement with the local house of Franciscans to ensure regular water supplies to the town. He died before 1455, when his widow was in possession of some of his property in Northgate Street and outside the east gate. Alice had, by that time, taken her vows.3Gloucester Corporation Recs. 1112; Trans Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. xiii. 242; Gloucester Rental 1455 ed. Cole, 4, 26, 76, 90, 100, 102, 108.