BAXTER, John, of Maldon, Essex.

Baxter was an unusual surname, but no-one called John Baxter has been traced in the Dorset records of this period. Nor is there any evidence to link the prominent merchant of Boston with the port of Melcombe Regis. That John Baxter, s. of Stephen Baxter of Boston, shipped wool to the staple of Calais from the ports of Bishop’s Lynn and Yarmouth in the 1440s, but suffered financially from the theft of his goods at sea by men of Holland and Zeeland. In consideration of his many losses in the King’s service, he was granted for life the office of tronager and pesager in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 17 Oct. 1442, and was collector of customs and subsidies in the same port 24 Jan.-26 July 1453, 31 Aug. 1453-29 Apr. 1455 and 29 Sept. 1460-10 May 1461, as well as being searcher of ships in Boston 27 Oct. 1456-30 Nov. 1458: CPR, 1436-41, pp. 491-2; 1441-6, p. 128; 1446-52, p. 42; E356/20, rots. 37d, 38; 21, rot. 58. Baxter received letters of protection as going overseas in the retinue of the earl of Stafford in 1444, and in that of Sir John Marney, the capt. of Hammes, in 1457, although he neglected to help Marney in the safekeeping, defence and victualling of the fortress as required: DKR, xlviii. 360, 416; CPR, 1452-61, p. 361. His failure to answer suits for debt for almost £140 brought in the ct. of c.p. in Hen. VI’s reign, resulted in his outlawry in five different counties (including Hants and Wilts., but not Dorset), although as ‘of Boston, the elder’ he obtained a pardon in Nov. 1474: CPR, 1467-77, p. 435. The MP for Melcombe therefore remains unidentified.