BRASIER, Ralph

More can be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 341-2.

Brasier, from a family established in Leicester by the early thirteenth century, was the wealthiest merchant in the town of his day, trading principally in wool. An early reference to him describes him as ‘woolman’: CIPM, xxiii. 308. He had country estates on the outskirts of Leicester at Humberstone, from whence the family probably originated, and further afield at Brooksby between Leicester and Melton Mowbray. These explain why he was assessed on a clear annual income of as much as £13 in the subsidy returns of 1435-6. E179/192/59. Given the prominent part he played in the affairs of the borough for more than 30 years, it is not surprising that there is plentiful evidence of his close connexions with other leading townsmen. Sometimes these led him into conflict. As a feoffee of Peter Dexster, he became involved in a dispute with a local saddler, Thomas Gaddesby, over a sizeable estate in the town, consisting of nine tofts, 12 messuages and a horse-mill. On 2 Oct. 1429, soon after his fourth election to the mayoralty, the matter was put to the arbitration of six townsmen, including John Church I*, John Loughborough* and Thomas Waldegrave*. Their award did not, however, bring the parties to settlement. Dispute over its terms not only led to litigation in the court of common pleas but threatened to involve influential men from outside the town. Gaddesby conveyed the disputed property to a group of feoffees headed by William, Lord Ferrers of Groby, and Sir Thomas Beaumont, and procured them to sue an assize of novel disseisin against our MP and his co-feoffees. It is testimony either to Brasier’s influence or the rectitude of his cause that these tactics did not prevail. Their failure is implied in a deed registered at Leicester before Sir William Babington, c.j.c.p., on 22 Sept. 1433: Richard Danet, one of Gaddesby’s feoffees, quitclaimed the disputed lands to Dexster’s nominees. CP40/682, rot. 319; 691, cart. rot. 1d.

Brasier enjoyed friendlier relations with other influential men from outside his native town, most notably with Roger Flore*, who, in his will of April 1424, named him among his executors. Fifty Earliest English Wills (EETS, lxxviii), 55. Our MP was himself dead by Trinity term 1439 when his own executors, including two other Leicester MPs, William Pacy* and Ralph Fisher alias Furnes*, brought what seems to have been the first of many actions of debt against his debtors. CP40/714, rot. 92d; 716, rot. 140d; 718, rot. 252; 731, rot. 90d. Fisher, as the last surviving executor, was still involved in litigation as late as 1456: CP40/780, rot. 418d. There is no record of any issue. Some of his property was in the hands of John Reynold* by 1454. Leicester Bor. Recs. ed. Bateson, ii. 425.