BARON, John II

John was the elder son of Walter Baron of Fordington on the outskirts of Dorchester, who in his will of 1440 left him a tenement and curtilage in East Street, Dorchester, naming him as co-executor with his wife Margaret.3 Ibid. 287. He was probably also related to William Baron, who lived elsewhere in the town and served as a bailiff in 1435-6 and 1449-50.4 Ibid. 275-7, 282, 300. The first mention of him in the records does not redound to his credit, for an official inquiry held in the spring of 1438 found that he and others had forcibly removed 200 sheep, four horses and brass pots and pans, in all worth £29, from property at North Cadbury, Somerset, these being the possessions of one John Swithyn. What lay behind the alleged crime is not revealed, but Baron’s trade is: he is described as a tailor.5 CIMisc. viii. 103. Other records show him in a more respectable light, acquiring a burgage in Pease Lane, Dorchester, in 1446, together with his wife, and joining his kinsman William Baron among the ‘fidedignorum’ of the town at a view of frankpledge in October 1447.6 Dorchester Recs. 114, 305-6. He does not appear to have ever been made a bailiff, but the names of the bailiffs are not known for 11 of the years between 1436 and 1461, so it is possible that he served in one of those. Baron’s return to the Parliament of 1460 occurred quite late in his career. During the second session, in the Hilary term of 1461, he was sued in the court of common pleas by John Styll, who accused him and his fellow townsmen, a smith named Ralph Bedford and a yeoman called John Goldsmith, of an assault and the theft of goods worth £2 and £6 6s. 8d. in money. As Goldsmith was a former bailiff of the town, it may be that he and the others had been acting in an official capacity.7 CP40/800, rot. 23.

Given Baron’s association with Fordington, it might be assumed that he was the man of this name who later that same year, on 20 Nov. 1461, was granted the offices of bailiff of the royal lordship there, and keeper of the gaol at Dorchester. However, although the post of gaoler was not granted to another man until 1473, that at Fordington was granted to a yeoman of the royal chamber in February 1470 ostensibly on account of the previous incumbent’s death.8 CPR, 1461-7, p. 60; 1467-77, pp. 185, 396. Baron of Dorchester lived on after the death of the royal servant, for the same man as had acquired the burgage in Pease Lane in 1446 was still living in April 1485, when, following his wife’s death, he relinquished his interest in it.9 CPR, 1467-77, pp. 305-6. Meanwhile, Baron had been listed as a potential juror at sessions of oyer and terminer held in Dorchester in May 1462, and, now described as a draper he was sued for a debt of £40 by John Osmundston, clerk, in Michaelmas term 1465.10 KB9/21/38; CP40/817, rot. 45. Baron appeared as a witness to local deeds in the same decade, and in April 1470 as a feoffee of property in High West Street belonging to the fraternity of St. Mary in St. Peter’s church.11 Recs. Dorchester, 295, 298, 314. He is not recorded after the spring of 1485.