HAWKSTONE, George

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 327-8.

Hawkstone twice acted as arbiter in important local disputes. On 30 July 1417 he was one of a panel of four who returned an award in the vendetta between John Bruyn* and the men of Bridgnorth, headed by Richard Horde*, that had so seriously disturbed the peace of Shropshire in 1413-14. Ten years later Bruyn’s violent activities meant that he was again called upon as a mediator. Early in 1427, once more in a panel of four, he sought to reconcile Bruyn to one John Gatacre of Gatacre. The panel awarded, among other things, that both Bruyn and Gatacre should pay £4 each to maintain a chaplain for a year to celebrate masses for the soul of a man killed in the course of their feuding, any excess going to his widow.3 E. Powell, Kingship, Law and Society, 101-2, 243-4; NLW, Pitchford Hall mss, 2482, 2492.

Hawkstone was certainly alive in July 1438 and he may have survived into the early 1440s. The Shrewsbury bailiffs’ account for 1443-4 records that ‘George’ Hawkstone was given wine by the borough authorities when he came to the town in company with the sheriff, bringing unspecified prisoners from Wales. It may however be that ‘George’ is here a mistake for our MP’s son, John, who was then serving as escheator of Shropshire. In any event, our MP was certainly dead by 25 Oct. 1445 when described as a deceased feoffee of Sir William Mallory (father of Thomas*).4 CPR, 1436-41, p. 114; Salop Archs. Shrewsbury recs., bailiffs’ acct. 3365/377, m. 3; CFR, xvii. 241; CIPM, xxvi. 282.