BEKKE, William, of Bosham, Suss.

No local man of this name has been discovered, and although there is insufficient evidence conclusively to identify the Portsmouth MP with the William Bekke who lived some 15 miles away at Bosham in Sussex, it seems likely that he was the man elected in 1427. Bekke of Bosham obtained in November 1399 at the Exchequer a lease of land at Chidham, near his home, for ten years. CFR, xii. 15. By early 1401 he had been appointed by Thomas, earl of Arundel, as bailiff of his liberty in the west Sussex rape of Arundel, and he apparently also served over a long period as a coroner in the county, even though the sheriff was instructed on three different occasions to find a replacement: the first time, in June 1410, as Bekke was not regarded as a fit person for the office, in May 1411 because he was ill, and in April 1431 owing to his age and infirmity. Meanwhile, the same William Bekke had served a term as escheator of Surrey and Sussex from November 1420 to May 1422. Such experience of office under the Crown may have qualified him for election to Parliament in the eyes of the burgesses of Portsmouth.

Bekke enfeoffed the Sussex lawyers William Sydney* and John Hilly* of his messuage and 40 acres of land at Chidham before he died. He left two daughters as his heirs: Agnes, who married John Goring, and was the mother of the John Goring† who represented Sussex in 1467, and Julian, who married Thomas Copland. C1/61/226.