WHITTOCKSMEAD, John, of Bath, Som.

Probably the son of the John Whittocksmead who represented Bath in Parliament seven times between 1361 and 1373, this John has left little trace. Described as ‘of Tatwick’, he witnessed a local deed in 1392, but it was as ‘of Bathampton’ that in the following year he was involved in transferring the property of Thomas Ford to feoffees. He witnessed a deed in Bath itself in October 1403, and in 1409 served on the local jury required to give evidence about the suspected suicide of Thomas Rymour. In 1413 he was pardoned for not appearing in the court of common pleas to answer a London mercer for a debt of £13. He was still alive two years later.1Med. Deeds Bath (Som. Rec. Soc. lxxiii), 147; Ancient Deeds Bath ed. Shickle, 5/100; CPR, 1413-16, p. 82; E143/19/4/18; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, 107. Another John Whittocksmead, perhaps his son, who made his career as an attorney at Westminster, sat in at least 13 Parliaments between 1427 and 1472 as a representative initially for Bath but then for various of the boroughs of Wiltshire and, in 1450, for the county itself.2HP ed. Wedgwood 1439-1509, Biogs. 944-5.