BRUGGE, John II, of Leominster, Herefs.

John Brugge was a near kinsman of another Leominster MP, Richard Brugge*. Very little is known of him but interests at Westminster, as a minor lawyer, may explain his three elections to Parliament: in 1452, 1454 and 1457, described as a gentleman of either Leominster or Eyton, just outside Leominster, he offered surety for the payment of fines in the court of King’s bench by a Hereford draper and others. KB27/766, fines rot. 1d; 774, fines rot. 1d; 784, fines rot.d. At some point between the feasts of Michaelmas 1459 and 1460 he took office as bailiff of the abbot of Reading in Herefordshire, a post he may have held when elected to the Coventry Parliament of November 1459. C219/16/5. It is not improbable that, as the abbot’s bailiff, he was elected to one or more of the Parliaments of Edward IV’s reign for which returns are lost. However this may be, he was dead by Easter term 1477 when his widow and executrix, Katherine, was sued by John Welford* for a debt of £20 incurred by our MP during Welford’s shrievalty in 1461. CP40/862, rot. 292.