BEVER, Stephen, of Rye, Suss.

As a Portsman of Rye, in the 1430s Bever claimed exemption from taxation on the moveable goods in his possession outside the liberty at Hope and Wivelridge. E179/225/50, 226/69, 227/94. He is known to have owned a house in Rye itself, but there is otherwise no indication of the scale or value of his property, nor of his occupation. Cat. Rye Recs. deed 136/188. Numbered among his kinsmen was the chaplain John Bever, for whom he acted as procurator at his induction in the chantry of St. Nicholas and St. Mary at Rye by the archdeacon of Lewes in 1419, a year before John’s death. Ibid. 133/4, 5; Rye ct. bk. 33/7, f. 34v. Stephen was occasionally called upon to witness deeds in the town, such as a conveyance by one former MP, William Long†, to another, Thomas Piers†, made in 1423. Deficiencies in the records mean that it is uncertain precisely when he became a jurat of Rye, although it may be confidently assumed that he served in this capacity before his election as mayor in 1427. During his term of office one John Segnoos appeared before him and the jurats to acknowledge that he had ‘maliciously offended in words against the mayor’, only for Bever magnanimously to pardon the offence. Rye ct. bk. 33/7, ff. 14, 38v. Also while he was mayor, in March 1428, he was named as an executor of the will of Walter Seller, the rector of All Saints’ church at Iden near Rye, who left him specific instructions to distribute grain among the poor of the town. Reg. Chichele, ii. 377-8. Bever acted as deputy mayor in May 1432, while William Broughton* was absent attending the Parliament then in session. His own election, to the Parliament of 1435, was to be expected given his previous participation in the affairs of the Port, but nevertheless came late in his career. Bever is not recorded after November 1437. Cat. Rye Recs. deed 136/188.