HEWET, Thomas

A bowyer by trade and a close relative, probably the son, of another of the town’s MPs, very little else is known of him. The first reference to him dates from Hilary term 1432 when he brought suits of debt against four tradesmen of Leicester and Loughborough. On 5 Oct. 1433, before the justices of assize at Leicester, he sat on the jury which found in favour of Thomas Charite* in his dispute with Henry, Lord Grey of Codnor.2 CP40/684, rot. 344; 692, rot. 106. His appointment as one of the deputy bailiffs under John Norris came soon after his election to Parliament on 29 Nov. 1436. Later, on 2 Apr. 1448 he was a juror before royal commissioners investigating the illegal giving of livery in the town; and on 12 Nov. 1450 he attested the borough’s parliamentary election. Hewet was alive at least as late as 1457 when he was plaintiff in a plea of trespass.3 C219/15/1; 16/1; C145/313/13; KB27/784, rot. 50. He may have been the father of another Thomas Hewet, a mercer who served as Leicester’s chamberlain and meat tester in the first decade of the sixteenth century.4 Leicester Bor. Recs. ii. 450, 460, 465.