BEGET, John, of Shrewsbury, Salop.

Beget’s family had held property in Frankwell, a suburb of Shrewsbury, since 1278. His father, also named John, a skinner by trade, was described in 1404 as ‘of London’, but Beget himself was a mercer and like his grandfather resided in Shrewsbury, or, at furthest, only five miles away in Longden, after acquiring in 1417 all the lands in the latter place belonging to William Biriton of Shrewsbury.CCR, 1402-5, p. 243; Add. 30321, ff. 22, 53; Shrewsbury Lib. deed 2490. Following his only return to Parliament, in December 1416 Beget was among the Shrewsbury burgesses consulted by the bailiffs in the Common Hall with regard to the drawing up of ordinances to ensure the fair collection of the ‘taske’ of the town. When one of the six ‘supersedentes’; or assessors of the borough, in 1420 he travelled to Bridgnorth on the community’s behalf to attend the sessions being held there.Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II 67, f. 84; box VIII 359.

In 1426 Beget was appointed executor of the will of Roger Colle of Shrewsbury, esquire, but thereafter it is difficult to distinguish him from two other John Begets, both of whom were probably his sons. It is likely that in February 1431 the former MP was still in possession of ‘Blake halle’ in ‘Romaldesham’ (now Barker Street) and of property in Castle Foregate, but he died before March 1437 when his eldest son, calling himself John Beget ‘senior’, conveyed this property to Degory Water, the transaction being witnessed by John Beget ‘junior’, then one of the town bailiffs.PCC 7 Luffenham; CPR, 1429-36, p. 107; CP25(1) 195/22/7; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. lii. 223; liv. 96. It was probably John Beget the MP who founded the chantry at the altar of St. Michael in St. Chad’s church, Shrewsbury, which was later adopted by the fraternity of mercers, and also provided for the relief of 14 ‘pore almes people’.Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), x. 307-8, 310; E301/40 m. 1d. It was probably his eldest son, John, who held property in Ludlow by 1430. Which of his putative sons was an assessor in Shrewsbury in 1434-5, an alderman in 1444, bailiff in 1458-9, and resident in the High Street in 1459 is not known. One of them may have been the John Beget who founded another chantry in St. Chad’s, this time belonging to the fraternity of the company of weavers. Thomas Beget, perhaps a third son of the MP, represented Shrewsbury in the Parliament of 1447. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 1), iii. 244; (ser. 2), iii. 150; (ser. 3), vi. 388; liii. 233; liv. 85; Add. 30321, ff. 4, 42; T. Phillips, Hist. Shrewsbury, 115; H. Owen and J.B. Blakeway, Hist. Shrewsbury, i. 212; Shrewsbury Lib. deed 2729; Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II 67, f. 16.