BEAUFITZ, John

Beaufitz’s origins, as well as his trade or profession, are uncertain.7 He may have been related to Master John Beaufitz, who held a portion of the parish church of Tiverton in the mid 1420s, and to whom John Shillingford was later said to have been bound in the vast sum of £5,000: CPR, 1422-9, pp. 281, 344; C131/71/1, 73/3. Normally styled a gentleman, rather than a merchant, his career nevertheless points to some mercantile interests. It is possible that he was the owner of ‘Beaufits Taverne’ in Exeter, an alehouse which gained some notoriety in the context of the great dispute between the city and the cathedral authorities, when it was said by the canons to be a centre of misrule.8 CP40/682, rot. 265; Letters and Pprs. Shillingford (Cam. Soc. ser. 2, ii), 104, 113. It is not certain at what date Beaufitz was admitted to the freedom of the city, but he was evidently a freeman by the autumn of 1430, when he was first elected to serve on the council. By this date he had already held office as controller of the customs for almost four years, and was a familiar figure among the city’s merchant community. Within a few weeks of his election to the council, he was also appointed a constable of the Exeter staple, a position in which he would serve intermittently for much of the rest of his life. Less than a month later, writs were issued summoning a Parliament to Westminster, and the citizens chose Beaufitz, perhaps especially because he was a comparative newcomer in the ranks of the city’s governors, to represent Exeter alongside John Shillingford*, an experienced former mayor who had first sat in the Commons ten years earlier. In recognition of Shillingford’s higher status, he was paid parliamentary wages at the customary rate of 2s. per day, while Beaufitz had to content himself with the lesser rate of 6s. per week. Unusually for the normally parsimonious citizens of Exeter, both men were allowed payment for a total of 11 weeks, ten days being allowed for travel to and from Westminster, and in addition Beaufitz’s pay was rounded up to a full five marks.9 Devon RO, Exeter receiver’s acct. 9-10 Hen. VI, m. 1d.

Otherwise, John’s career was unremarkable, and followed the pattern normal for a citizen of Exeter. He was regularly present at the mayoral elections at the guildhall, intermittently served as a member of the city council, and was elected a bridge warden in 1435 and receiver in 1444. In his first year on the council in 1430-1 he was among the citizens negotiating with the executors of Peter Sturt† over the purchase of a piece of land needed for the construction of a new water conduit, and at another time he and John Derke, one of the city serjeants, rode to Exmouth to treat with William Hunt, the sub admiral.10 Exeter receiver’s acct. 9-10 Hen. VI, mm. 1d, 2. He twice served as churchwarden of his parish church; in 1447-8 he was among a delegation dispatched to Shute to seek the support of Sir William Bonville* for the city’s affairs;11 Ibid. 26-27 Hen. VI, m. 3. and in June 1456 he was one of the citizens who agreed to borrow £20 from the receiver, Richard Druell*, as a gift for the duchess of Exeter.12 Ibid. 34-35 Hen. VI, attached schedule.

Under the Crown, Beaufitz held office as customs controller at Exeter and Dartmouth for a period of more than 16 years, with only short interruptions from 1431 to 1433 and during the spring and summer of 1442. On two occasions during this period he was appointed to royal commissions, both of them concerned with matters related to the Channel trade. Similarly, in August 1454 he was among the Exeter citizens examined by the King’s commissioners over an act of piracy purportedly committed by Thomas Gille I* against the London fishmonger William Mayowe.13 C1/24/3-5.

Few other details of Beaufitz’s career have come to light. It was probably in his capacity as a constable of the Exeter staple that on 11 Mar. 1456 he, John Cutler alias Carwithan* and William Bishop* (respectively mayor and the other constable of the staple) prevented the officers of the sheriff of Devon from arresting Thomas Lanoy I*.14 KB27/781, rex rot. 33d. Curiously, he was at this time described as a mere husbandman. The date of our MP’s death has not been discovered, but it probably occurred in the second half of 1458, when he relinquished his office of constable of the staple for the last time, and ceased to serve on the city council.15 C67/25; Exeter mayor’s ct. rolls 36-38 Hen. VI.