FORSTER, William II

Although the Forsters were one of the principal families of the borough of Shrewsbury, their pedigree is difficult to disentangle. Three Williams played a prominent part in the town’s affairs during the first half of the fifteenth century: the first held office as coroner, assessor and bailiff between 1398 and 1404; the second was elected to Parliament while serving as bailiff in 1425-6; and the third served in the lesser offices of common clerk and sub-bailiff from the late 1430s. It is probable that the first William was the father of the MP, although the MP was not the father of the third, who is described in a pardon of 1446 as the son of Roger Forster.2 Ibid. f. 11; bailiffs’ accts. 3365/373; 377, m. 7; C67/39, m. 24.

The career of the MP was short. He first appears in the records in 1417-18 when, as a draper, he was supplying woollen cloth to the household of Gilbert, Lord Talbot; and in the autumn of 1419 he was elected as coroner in his native town. During his term of office the borough authorities paid for wine to mark the reconciliation of disputes between him and John Perle*, who had held office as coroner in the previous year, and between him and one Hugh Dyer.3 Accts. of the Talbot Household, 1392-1425 (Salop Rec. Ser. vii), 117; Shrewsbury bailiffs’ accts. 3365/359. More interestingly, as coroner he heard a controversial appeal: in 1420 a Shrewsbury tailor appeared before him and Richard Overton, one of the county coroners, to accuse one of the county’s leading men, Sir Richard Lacon*, of the treason of making false coin, a seemingly baseless charge later repudiated by the accuser.4 KB27/650, rex rots. 23d, 30d; 651, rex rot. 23. Soon after his term as coroner Forster was more directly involved in a controversy of a different sort. According to a petition presented to the Lords by the abbot of Shrewsbury in the Parliament of October 1423, he and other prominent burgesses had violently disrupted the abbey’s fair in the previous August, threatening the monks and guarding the town gates to prevent them collecting the tolls and profits of the fair. After the abbot petitioned the Parliament against this infraction of his rights, Forster was among the townsmen summoned to answer before the royal council, and the matter was resolved by arbitration.5 SC8/71/3550; D.R. Walker, ‘Shrewsbury in the 15th Cent.’ (Univ. of Wales, Swansea Ph.D. thesis, 1981), 155-6; Salop Archs., Stobbs colln., 215/36.

Little else is known of Forster’s brief career. In Michaelmas term 1421 he appeared personally in the court of King’s bench to sue a plea of trespass against his putative kinsman, Roger Forster, a yeoman of Wellington, who responded by suing him for debt and detinue of charters. In the same law term, on 29 Oct., William was in his home town to act as a juror in the inquisition taken on the death of John, earl of Arundel.6 KB27/642, rot. 102; CP40/643, rot. 148; C138/59/51. Later, on 17 Apr. 1426, during the prorogation of the Parliament of which he was a Member, he was named as a feoffee of a wealthy Shrewsbury widow, Alice Mytton. Less than a year later, on 2 Feb. 1427, he joined three other townsmen in a bond of £200 to two local gentry, Hugh Burgh* and Richard Archer. The purpose of the bond is unknown but it may be relevant that Burgh was also one of Alice’s feoffees.7 C219/13/4; Salop Archs., deeds 6000/3861; Shrewsbury assembly bk. 3365/67, f. 54. Forster last appears in an active role on 26 Apr. 1428, when he sat as a juror to assess Shrewsbury’s contribution to a royal subsidy, and he died soon afterwards, at some date between 21 Feb. and 26 May 1430.8 Feudal Aids, iv. 257; CFR, xv. 322; KB27/677, rex rot. 3; CPR, 1429-36, pp. 106-7. His death may have been sudden for he appears not to have left a will. The task of administering his goods passed to one of the principal townsmen, William Horde*, who in Easter term 1431 as administrator brought an action for a debt of £8 13s. 6d. against William Temset, prior of Chirbury.9 CP40/681, rot. 76d.