BRUSSELE, William

Brussele was admitted to the guild merchant at Reading in 1427-8, on payment of a fine of 6s. 8d. and the usual sum of 3s. 4d. for the celebratory breakfast.2 Berks. RO, Reading recs., cofferers’ accts. R/FA/2 no. 17. He appears to have developed a profitable business as a draper, trading with a number of dealers from Berkshire and the neighbouring counties. Something of its extent may be seen in the record of his litigation in the court of common pleas. For instance, while up at Westminster for the Parliament of 1432 he brought pleas for debts of £11, and in 1439 he had actions pending for a total of £37 against men of Reading and Warfield in Berkshire, Marlow in Buckinghamshire, Hurst in Wiltshire, Kingsclere and Sherborne in Hampshire and even a weaver from Chichester in Sussex.3 CP40/686, rot. 308; 715, rots. 264d, 527. He was suing a Newbury fuller and a yoman from Hampshire for debts amounting to £18 in Hilary term 1447.4 CP40/744, rot. 240.

A prominent figure among the burgesses of Reading, Brussele attested the election indentures for five of the Parliaments between 1429 and 1442,5 C219/14/1, 2, 4, 5, 15/2. and on 12 Apr. 1432 he was named on the body of 24 townsmen delegated by the guild to negotiate with the abbot of Reading about their liberties.6 Reading Recs. i. 1. This was just two days before his election to Parliament.7 C219/14/3. He provided sureties for the admission to the guild of a weaver in 1434, and besides being chosen mayor for two terms he was also appointed by his fellows to collect parliamentary subsidies in the High Street in September 1441 and October 1443. At Easter 1442 he was one of four leading burgesses who with the mayor undertook to supervise repairs to the guildhall and the building of a storeroom, and in the following October he was made responsible for the collection of a local tax to pay for these works. He was among the six guildsmen selected to raise contributions for a loan to the Crown in December 1446.8 Reading Recs. i. 4, 13, 18, 15, 25; Berks. Arch. Jnl. lxi. 73. Meanwhile, Brussele’s standing in the locality had led to his appearance on the list of men of Berkshire who in 1434 were required to take the generally administered oath against maintenance,9 CPR, 1429-36, p. 403. and ten years later he had been pricked as a juror at Reading for the indictment for treason of Thomas Kerver.10 KB9/245/45.

Little is known about Brussele’s property holdings, save that he had a house in the corn market in Reading, and evidently lived in the High Street. In 1444 he was party to a final concord whereby a messuage, 58 acres of land, 5s. rent and common pasture for seven cows in Whitley on the outskirts of the town were conveyed to him and his heirs by John and Agnes Paddebury. His co-feoffees on this occasion included the former knights of the shire, William Perkins* and Thomas Rothwell†.11 Berks. RO, Reading recs., deeds R/AT 1/116; CP25(1)/13/84/23.

Brussele was an unsuccessful candidate for the mayoralty in September 1447.12 Reading Recs. i. 28. His will, made a year later, on 17 Sept. 1448, was proved at Lambeth just nine days afterwards.13 PCC 36 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 284). He had earlier been a sacristan of St. Laurence’s church, Reading, and had donated 3s. 4d. for repairs to the building in 1440,14 Trans. Berks. Arch. Soc. (1881), 6; C. Kerry, Hist. St. Laurence, 12. but although he now left the high altar 6s. 8d. and the fabric £1, it was not there or anywhere else in Reading that he wished to be buried. Rather, he requested burial in St. Andrew’s church in Cambridge. It would appear that he was then away from home, for the chaplain of St. Andrew’s witnessed the will, and the other witnesses all came either from Cambridge or London. There is no evidence of a family connexion with Cambridge, but it is always possible that this was Brussele’s place of origin. Having no children of his own, he left his wife Margaret, her son Thomas Cowper, and the latter’s heirs all his lands, tenements and goods in Reading, the two of them being also named his executors. This led to trouble from his kinsmen. A few years later, after Margery’s death, Brussele’s nephew Richard petitioned the chancellor claiming to have been unjustly disinherited of a building in High Street, Reading, by Cowper, who had sold it to Thomas Beke*.15 C1/33/8. This may have been Brussele’s principal dwelling.