BARET, Thomas (d.1396), of Oxford.

From 1366 Baret acted as a trustee of a number of properties in Oxford, some of which he conveyed in 1373 to the bishop of Ely. His own holdings in the town included a tenement in Brewer’s Street, a garden in St. Edmund’s parish and a house outside the north gate, besides a commercial interest in some shops. He and his wife paid 3s. to the poll tax of 1380 as well as 4d. more for their two servants.Ibid. xviii. 12; lxiv. nos. 62, 338; lxxxv. nos. 165-6; lxxxix. no. 429. Then serving as bailiff for the first time, Baret subsequently received as such a royal order to use more zeal in pursuing criminals who, having injured members of the university, were managing to evade justice by taking refuge within the area of the borough’s jurisdiction. The town authorities had apparently been lukewarm in this matter, giving rise to complaints by the chancellor of the university. It seems likely that Baret, a spicer, had quite extensive trading links outside the town, for in May 1384 he and William Stodeham of Abingdon were sued for debt by John Bradfelde, a London grocer: among their mainpernors in this case were two Londoners and a Lancashire man.

A few months later, when bailiff for the second time, he was one of those burgesses who, like John Hickes, were required to enter into a bond to keep the peace towards Merton college. In October 1385 he stood surety for the attendance in Parliament of Edmund Kenyan. Though never an alderman, Baret was in 1389 one of the wardens of the guild of St. Mary in All Saints parish church.CCR, 1377-81, p. 312; 1381-5, pp. 437, 451-2; C219/8/12; C47/45/389.

Baret died shortly before March 1396, leaving John Ludlow, another spicer, as one of his executors.Oxf. Hist. Soc. lxxxix. no. 431.