BRADY, Richard, of Kendal, Westmld.

Brady is poorly documented, but the few references to him are revealing. In Trinity term 1446 he appeared personally in the court of common pleas to sue two drapers of Kendal for the taking and detention of his chattels there. Soon after, on 1 Sept., described as ‘of London, gentleman’, he appeared personally in Chancery to offer surety for a yeoman of Kendal; and, two months later, styled as ‘of Kendal, gentleman’, he did the same for a clerk of Southoe (Huntingdonshire) and a taverner of London. CP40/742, rot. 77d; C237/42/117, 135. Clearly he was from Kendal and it is probable that he was a lawyer, albeit an insignificant one. It is possible that he was a servant of the lord of Kendal, (Sir) Thomas Parr*. His election for Appleby in 1442 is consistent with such a connexion. His fellow MP was Robert Ingleton*, a rising young lawyer to whom Parr was the early patron; Parr, as deputy sheriff of Westmorland at that date, was well placed to secure his own men; and Parr’s active involvement in their election is implied by an irregularity in the return. The names of Brady and Ingleton have been added in a gap left in the indenture and endorsed on the writ in a different hand and ink from the remainder of the endorsement: C219/15/2. Interestingly, Brady’s name appears before Ingleton’s. Premature death is the likely explanation for the lack of later references to our MP. In Trinity term 1449 Ralph Brady, in company with his wife, Sibyl, widow of Thomas Frythbank of Selsmergh near Kendal, brought actions of detinue of goods against her late husband’s executors; it is likely that he was our MP’s successor, either as son or, more probably, as brother. The family remained active at least into the next generation. Roland Brady attested the Westmorland election at Appleby on 1 Oct. 1472, when Parr’s son and heir, Sir William†, was one of those returned. CP40/754, rot. 253; C219/17/2.