| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Devizes | 1414 (Apr.), 1414 (Nov.), 1425 |
Attestor, parlty. election, Wilts. 1422.2 As ‘senior’: C219/13/1.
Mayor, Devizes 1413 – 14, 1429–30.3 Wilts. Hist. Centre, Devizes, parish of St. Mary, 189/34, 41; Devizes bor. recs., G20/150/5.
Tax collector, Wilts. Aug. 1430.
More can be added to the earlier biography.4 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 677. The MP has been distinguished from Thomas Coventre of Wanborough, Wilts.
As serving mayor of Devizes, Coventre effectively returned himself to his first Parliament, the Leicester assembly of 1414 (Apr.), and he had only recently left office when he was sent to Westminster later that year.
In 1445 Coventre was joint defendant with Robert Ismell* of Devizes in a suit over a debt of £8 brought by Robert Lyon in the court of common pleas.5 CP40/738, rot. 82. However, like other members of his family, he did not restrict himself to the inland trade, as is suggested by the litigation between him and a Genoese merchant pending in Chancery in the 1440s.6 C1/15/261.
In 1451, just months before Coventre’s death the Wiltshire subsidy commissioners assessed his taxable wealth at £3 p.a., an evident underassessment.7 E179/196/118. A second Thomas Coventre was assessed at £2 at Marlborough.
- 1. Chetham’s Lib., Manchester, Agecroft mss, F3/Box 1/280-1.
- 2. As ‘senior’: C219/13/1.
- 3. Wilts. Hist. Centre, Devizes, parish of St. Mary, 189/34, 41; Devizes bor. recs., G20/150/5.
- 4. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 677. The MP has been distinguished from Thomas Coventre of Wanborough, Wilts.
- 5. CP40/738, rot. 82.
- 6. C1/15/261.
- 7. E179/196/118. A second Thomas Coventre was assessed at £2 at Marlborough.