COVENTRE, William

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 679-80. In early 1414 Coventre and his putative brother John brought an assize of novel disseisin against a group of local people over a messuage and two stalls, as well as certain rents in Devizes. While their opponents claimed to hold the property by royal grant, the Coventres stated that their kinsman Nicholas Coventre had acquired the holdings from John, Lord Lovell.3 JUST1/1527, rot. 4.

During his mayoralty of Devizes in 1417-18 Coventre not only presided over his own return to Parliament, but continued to hold his borough office throughout the session of the Commons.4 Devizes, parish of St. Mary, 189/42. No full list of Devizes officials can be established, and it is probable that he also held the mayoralty on other occasions. Certainly, he undertook other tasks in local administration: so, in October 1443 he headed a Devizes jury at the inquiry into the landholdings of the recently deceased, thrice-widowed Margaret Erleigh, former wife of John Seymour, Sir Walter Sandys† and the royal justice, Sir William Cheyne.5 CIPM, xxvi. 68.