BARBER, William I, of Arundel, Suss.

William may have been related to John Barber, who at the turn of the century had been a tenant of the earl of Arundel in Arundel, where he rented a garden in ‘Oldechupyngestrete’ and a house beyond the bridge. Two Fitzalan Survs. (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxvii), 116. Described as a ‘barber of Arundel’, William was a defendant in a suit brought in the court of common pleas in Michaelmas term 1419, in which it was alleged that he had broken into the house of another townsman, Nicholas Short, stolen goods worth £2, caused a fire and assaulted a servant. CP40/635, rot. 346. Then, at the borough court held at Arundel at Michaelmas 1427, he was fined for transgressions against local trading regulations. Arundel Castle mss, Arundel ct. roll M41. Despite such stains on his character, he had probably already been elected to the Parliament due to assemble on the following 13 Oct., and evidently proved satisfactory as a representative for his fellow burgesses re-elected him two years later. In Hilary term 1442 he was once more cited in an action brought in the court of common pleas, this time in a suit for debt for the sum of £2. CP40/724, rot. 388.