FOORDE, William

From a family long established in Colchester,6 Several Foordes were bailiffs of the town in the 14th cent.: VCH Essex, ix. 60. William also pursued a career in London. Possibly the son of a prominent burgess who died in 1426,7 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 102. he was a merchant and draper who resided in the parish of All Saints.8 R. Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 211n; E101/324/21; ct. roll, D/B 5 Cr65, m. 24d. There is little definite evidence for his holdings in Colchester, although he is known to have succeeded to a ‘place’ which Katherine, widow of Nicholas Peek*, left him in her will of 1465,9 PCC 12 Godyn (PROB11/5, f. 93). and to have bought a messuage and garden in All Saints from John Algood later in the same decade.10 Ct. roll, D/B 5 Cr73, m. 30. He was also involved in conveyances of property, both in and outside the borough, on behalf of others.11 Ct. rolls, D/B 5 Cr63, m. 10; 66, m. 16; 71, m. 15d; 74, m. 13d; CAD, i. B593; Essex Feet of Fines, iv. 75; Mercers’ Co., London, St. Paul’s school, cart. ff. 207v-208, 216-217v. In 1472, for example, he was party to a settlement of several manors in Essex in which the recorder of Colchester, John Green III*, enjoyed an interest in the right of his wife, and seven years later he was a feoffee for Sir William Fynderne†.12 Essex Feet of Fines, iv. 69-70; CAD, i. C1105. He was also an associate and trustee of two Londoners, Thomas Cook II*, who acquired property in the borough, and Henry Colet†, who bought those holdings after Cook’s death.13 PCC 36 Wattys (PROB11/6, ff. 280-3). Foorde may have had business dealings with Cook, with whom in 1449 he received a bond for £30 10s. from Peter Berwyk of Colchester.14 Ct. roll, D/B 5 Cr63, m. 15d; St. Paul’s school, cart. ff. 233v-234. By the early 1470s, his links with London were such that he himself became one of its freemen. A royal pardon he received in December 1471 refers to him as both a draper of Colchester and a citizen and clothier of London,15 C67/48, m. 24. suggesting that by this date he was spending an appreciable amount of time in the City.

In spite of forming a strong connexion with London, Foorde appears not to have held office outside Colchester or to have begun his career in local government until after sitting in his first Parliament.16 The borough’s ct. rolls record the elections of Colchester’s officials but those covering the period 1449-51 have not survived. The Parliament of 1450 sat in the wake of Cade’s revolt, during which there were disturbances at Colchester. In February 1453, when (Sir) John Prysote* and other commissioners of oyer and terminer came to the town, Foorde sat on the jury that indicted William Lecche* and other townsmen for rising in support of Cade. Given that Lecche had become one of the bailiffs of Colchester in September 1450, it is hard to believe that he had played any part in the revolt just a few months earlier, and it is possible that the indictment arose out of personal enmities among the burgesses. Another of the jurors was John Foorde*, a fellow office-holder in the borough during the 1450s and early 1460s, and almost certainly a relative of William.17 KB9/26/1/17.

William Foorde was an administrator of some experience by the time of his election to the Parliament of 1467. When returned to the Commons, he had already served four terms as bailiff of Colchester, an office he held for nine terms in all. On 1 Aug. 1469, late in his fifth term as such, he and his fellow bailiff, John Bishop IV*, received a letter from one or more noblemen ‘for their thanke after Banbery felde’ (the battle of Edgcote, fought on 26 July that year), although it is not recorded what service they or the borough had performed.18 Red Ppr. Bk. Colchester ed. Benham, 4. During Foorde’s seventh term as bailiff, the borough authorities resolved their quarrel with a group of men from St. Leonard’s, a parish that was part of the liberty of Colchester but lay outside the town walls. The dispute was over plans to construct a bridge and road between the parish and the town within the walls. By means of a settlement of late 1473, the parties agreed that the men of St. Leonard’s might have free access to the town but should build and maintain the bridge in question. John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, was party to the agreement, since the proposed road was to pass over land belonging to him.19 P. Morant, Essex (Colchester), iii. 31. Foorde completed his final term as bailiff in September 1484 but he served in the borough administration for at least another year after this date. It is possible that he continued to hold office in Colchester after 1485, but there are no borough records extant for Henry VII’s reign and the date of his death is unrecorded.