BAILEY, Thomas

Bailey was probably from an Oxford family,6 John Bailey of Oxford was assessed for the poll tax of 1380, the same man or a namesake was one of the bailiffs of the borough in 1407-8 and a John Bailey held the offices of chamberlain, bailiff and surveyor of nuisances there in the late 1420s and early 1430s: W.R. Williams, Parlty. Hist. Oxon. 104; Wood’s Surv. Antiqs. Oxf. iii. 20; Snappe’s Formulary (Oxf. Historical Soc. lxxx), 237; Cart. Oseney Abbey, i. (Oxf. Historical Soc. lxxxix), 299; C219/14/2. but there is no definite evidence for either his occupation or his property interests in the town.7 He was one of those to whom Thomas Dagvile conveyed a tenement in the parish of All Saints in 1440, probably as Dagvile’s feoffee: Bodl. Top. Oxon. c. 396, f. 145. If not a lawyer, he was at least a man of some learning, for in 1435 the wardens of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Oxford parish church of St. Michael at the North gate paid him 4d. to read a charter and give them counsel (‘pro lectura carte et consilio suo’).8 Oxon. RO, PAR 211/4/F1/17. He was active at Oxford by January 1428, when he and Richard Aubell brought the will of Gilbert Burton into the borough court for probate,9 Liber Albus Oxoniensis ed. Ellis, no. 200. and a few months later the Crown appointed him a tax collector there. Bailey became one of the bailiffs of Oxford shortly after the dissolution of his first Parliament. Near the end of his term as such, Henry VI visited the town, staying there or in the near vicinity during 7-11 Sept. 1438. Presumably, he and his fellow bailiff John Waryn played an active part in preparing for the royal visit and receiving the young King when he arrived.10 B.P. Wolffe, Hen. VI, 362.

Two years later, Bailey became mayor of Oxford for the first time. He must have enjoyed the respect of his fellow burgesses, since he served three consecutive terms in the office and was re-elected to a fourth shortly before his death. Late in his first term, he and the Oxford university authorities confronted a serious outbreak of disorder, for on 29 Aug. 1441 rioting broke out between northern and southern members of the university. In spite of the efforts of the university’s chancellor William Gray, assisted by Bailey, to restore order, the disturbances extended into the following day.11 John Benet’s Chron. (Cam. Miscellany xxiv), 162, 187-8. During his second mayoralty Bailey was returned to the Parliament of 1442, but he was not absent from Oxford for long since that assembly sat for just two months. He died in the autumn of 1443 and Thomas Dagvile* replaced him as mayor.12 Wood’s Surv. Antiqs. Oxf. iii. 22 and n; H. Hurst, Oxf. Topography (Oxf. Historical Soc. xxxix), 27. Dagvile appears not to have served out the whole of what remained of Bailey’s term since Richard Spragat* was exercising the office on 24 June 1444: Bodl. Top. Oxon. c. 52, f. 63. At his death, he was probably also verderer of Shotover and Stowood, the royal forests situated just to the east of Oxford, for on 18 Nov. the Crown ordered the sheriff of Oxfordshire to hold an election for a new verderer in place of the late ‘Thomas Baylly’. If the verderer, Bailey exercised his responsibilities as such very briefly, since his predecessor Richard Gylot was still in office in late May 1443.13 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 96, 170. Bailey’s will is no longer extant, but other records show that he bequeathed the town the scarlet gown he wore as one of its senior office-holders and set aside 60s. for repairs to its bridges.14 Hurst, 27; VCH Oxon. iv. 341n.