BARET, Robert, of Leominster.

On 24 Jan. 1447, according to the election indenture, John Mallyng* and Robert Baret were returned to Parliament to represent Leominster. C219/15/4. No other references to Robert have been traced, and ‘Robert’ may be a mistake for Richard, a draper who was bailiff of Leominster in 1460 and 1478. He was father of John†, MP for the borough in 1472, and may himself have been the son of another John, who stood surety for the attendance of one of the Leominster MPs in the Parliament of 1419 and was a Herefordshire tax collector in 1442. C219/16/6, 17/2, 3; CP40/803, rot. 6; CFR, xvii. 219. Yet even if the MP was Richard, there is little else to be said about him. In 1459, described as a yeoman, he was sued for stealing a valuable horse at Ludlow, and three years later he and his son were defendants in an action of debt sued by Leominster’s overlord, the abbot of Reading. CP40/794, rot. 177; 803, rot. 6. Another Baret, Thomas, was a Leominster draper, and his appointment as alnager of Hereford and Herefordshire in 1457 suggests he was the most important member of the family, but ‘Robert’ is an unlikely confusion for ‘Thomas’. CP40/756, rot. 365d; CFR, xix. 174-5. The probability is that the MP has been correctly identified, and that his election is another instance of the Leominster electors returning a lesser member of a local family.