BRAUNFELD, Thomas

Braunfeld was active in Northampton affairs from the early 1440s until the early 1470s. He is not to be identified with the mason of Kingsthorpe, a little to the north of Northampton, who was sued in 1429 for negligently building a house in the town, although the two were perhaps related. His election as bailiff is his first appearance in the records and nothing more is known of him until his return to Parliament early in 1449.2. KB27/674, rot. 36; C219/15/6. By this date he may already have been in service as one of the town’s four coroners, but he is not recorded in office before May 1451 when he viewed the body of a local weaver. His election to the mayoralty in the following year shows that he numbered among the leading townsmen, as does his second election to the office nine years later. A near contemporary list of the town’s mayors identifies him as a dyer and this is confirmed by a stray surviving deed. On 28 July 1465 an esquire of the county, Robert Haldenby of Ravensthorpe, farmed some land at Little Brington, a few miles to the north-east of Northampton, to its former tenant at will for three lives at an annual rent of 17s. 6d. payable for the first 12 years to our MP (described as a ‘deyster’ of Northampton), perhaps in payment of a debt. Braunfeld’s involvement in the cloth trade is also reflected in one of the few surviving alnage accounts for Northampton in this period: between Candlemas and Michaelmas 1472 he figured in two groups of townsmen who paid subsidy on a total of 32 cloths.3. Northants. RO, Spencer of Althorp mss, 850; E101/343/19.

Braunfeld makes three other appearances in the records. In 1465 he joined with Thomas Hunt* and William Hayrofe* in advancing 200 marks to (Sir) Thomas Tresham*, taking as security a lease of the knight’s property in the town. On 16 Nov. 1467 he was one of the former mayors present at the court of hustings in the guildhall, and on 4 Dec. 1472 he witnessed a deed at Northampton.4. Add. Ch. 22374; Northants. RO, Northampton bor. recs. private chs. 52; Northampton Recs. i. 294. By this date Simon Braunfeld, who was named with our MP in the alnage account of 1472, had already become active in town affairs, serving as bailiff in 1465-6, and it is a reasonable speculation that he was our MP’s son. His election to the mayoralty in 1477 implies that his putative father was dead by that date.5. Northampton Recs. ii. 550, 558.