DRYFFELD, Thomas, of Sandwich, Kent.

The identification of the man who represented the west-country boroughs of Wareham, Bridgwater and Taunton in the three Parliaments which met during the political crisis of 1449-51 presents some problems. Both Bridgwater and Wareham belonged in the right of the earldom of March to Richard, duke of York, who about this time was emerging as the government’s principal critic. It thus seems likely that the MP was in some way connected with the duke, but no suitable candidate has been identified. It seems unlikely that the MP was, as Wedgwood believed, a Windsor yeoman and probably the man who served as groom of the lardery of the Household in 1454: HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 283; C1/27/344, 38/249; PPC, vi. 229; CPR, 1467-77, p. 549. It is just possible that the MP was the Yorkshire notary also known as Thomas Mynskip, who normally resided at Beverley. In 1439-40 and 1445-6 he served as one of the 12 ‘governors’ of Beverley, as well as acting as the abp. of York’s receiver in the town, and it is not clear on what charges he, along with a large number of other Beverley men, found himself in York castle gaol in the same year. He was probably also the man who in 1481 was admitted to the freedom of York, after appointment as common clerk of the city, only to be succeeded in that office not much over a year later by Richard III’s clerk of requests, John Harrington†: Beverley Town Docs. (Selden Soc. xiv), 27; CPR, 1441-6, p. 421; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), vi. 13, 199; Freemen of York (Surtees Soc. cxvi), 203; York House Bks. ed. Attreed, ii. 419, 710; H. Kleineke, ‘Ric. III and the Court of Requests’, The Ricardian, xvii. 27.