BALE, John, of ?Launceston, Cornw.

In the first half of the fifteenth century the electors of Launceston usually chose local men as their representatives in the Commons, and there is thus little reason to suppose that the MP of 1445 was an outsider. The MP has sometimes been said to have been a London tailor of Suff. origins who served as serjeant of the catery of the Household by June 1448-aft. July 1452, but there is no evidence to support this hypothesis (HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 37; C67/42, m. 45; E403/771, mm. 6, 9, 11; 773, mm. 4, 6, 13, 16; 775, m. 6; 777, mm. 6-10, 13; 779, mm. 1, 8, 9, 11; 781, mm. 2-7; 785, m. 1, 3, 5, 7, 13-14; 786, mm. 1-3, 5-6, 10; 788, mm. 1-5; E101/410/1, f. 29v; 410/3, f. 30; 410/6, f. 39v; 410/9, f. 42). Indeed, Bale’s colleague in the Parliament, John Lowys I*, was a local man, and the payment to Bale of just 6s. 8d., half what Lowys received, as his parliamentary wages, may suggest that he was of lesser standing than him. Cornw. RO, Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/138, f. 6v. He was not named among the Cornishmen assessed for the income tax of 1451, which may indicate that he was thought to have an annual income below the threshold of 40s. p.a. E179/87/92. Nevertheless, Bale’s wealth appears to have been sufficient to purchase certain property in ‘Tresmargh’ from Nicholas Tregodek of South Petherwin and Margaret his wife. This transaction was later challenged by Nicholas’s son Thomas*, who claimed to be in possession of a deed prohibiting the alienation of the lands, but the outcome of the dispute is unknown. C1/33/318. Little else is known of Bale. He cannot with any certainty be identified with the man active in Devon in the early 1420s, but it was probably he at whose suit a writ of subpoena was issued to Thomas Tremure in November 1466. C253/39/8; CCR, 1422-9, p. 11; CPR, 1429-36, p. 119.