BEGWORTH, William, of Northampton.

Save for his one return to Parliament, the first known information about Begworth appears in the account for the period July 1394 to November 1395 compiled by the alnager of Northampton. He then paid a subsidy of 2s.2d. for six finished lengths of cloth, and although no further references survive to his activities in this branch of commerce, we may assume that like so many other local burgesses he had a continuing interest in the cloth trade. Some six years after taking his seat in the House of Commons, Begworth served a term as bailiff of Northampton, during which time he witnessed a conveyance of the Devonshire and Somerset estates of Thomas Classhe made in the borough. No more is heard of him after February 1406, when a writ of supersedeas was issued on behalf of the five Wellingborough men against whom he had begun litigation in the royal courts.2E101/343/16; CCR, 1396-9, p. 399; 1405-9, p. 96.