There was more than one William Bernard living in Chichester in the early fifteenth century, e.g. William Bernard (b.1367), godfather to William Pocok in 1406, and still living Nov. 1428: CIPM, xxiii. 313. but it seems most likely that the MP was the brewer of this name who in the autumn of 1439, in association with others of the city, including William Hore I*, was accused by John atte Wode of having assaulted and ill-treated him, and kept him prisoner until he paid a fine of £2. As Hore was then mayor of the city and staple it may be that he had been acting in an official capacity and that Bernard occupied a subordinate post in civic or staple administration at that time. CP40/715, rot. 71d. Bernard witnessed a deed in Chichester in November 1444,Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 137. but is otherwise not recorded until his return to Parliament a little over two years later. Subsequently, he was elected to serve at least nine terms as one of the two constables of the staple, and his standing in the city is confirmed by his appearance in September 1472 among the attestors to Chichester’s parliamentary election indenture. C219/17/2. He was still living in January 1474 when actively pursuing two debtors, a local merchant and brewer, for the sum of £40 due for goods he had sold them in the staple some six years earlier. C241/254/92, 134.
