FERET, William

On 11 Oct. 1420 a London merchant named John Pinchbeck presented in the Exchequer that Feret, described as a butcher of Lewes, had in the previous July freighted a certain balinger with five sarplers of wool, which were shipped over to Zeeland from Seaford on the Sussex coast without any payment being made for customs duties. Furthermore, he had also smuggled 3,200 woolfells in March 1419. Feret appeared in the court of the Exchequer to defend himself ten days later, and admitted making shipments of the sarplers, 100 woolfells and 1,000 lambs’ pells, but asserted that he had had no intention of avoiding the staple at Calais. He was committed to the Fleet prison for two days, before being brought back on 23 Oct. to be questioned about the remainder of the earlier consignment. This he said belonged to John Parker†, a fellow burgess of Lewes, and Giles Webbe. He was given bail, only to appear subsequently to make fine.1 E159/197, recorda Mich. rot. 4. It is clear from this episode that although Feret’s occupation was given as ‘butcher’, he traded in fleeces as well as carcasses.

Although he was only elected to a single Parliament for his home town, that summoned to Leicester in 1426, Feret was evidently one of the leading townsmen. He served as a juror at Lewes on several occasions: in 1424 and 1431, testifying about the confiscated goods of fugitive thieves;2 E368/199, recorda Mich. rot. 10; 203, recorda Hil. rot. 10. at inquisitions post mortem in 1427, 1432 and 1441 (on Thomas, Lord de la Warre, William, Lord Clinton, and Sir William Phelip†, Lord Bardolf, respectively);3 C139/30/54, 54/36, 103/30. and in 1428 to give evidence to the assessors of the tax levied on parishes.4 Feudal Aids, v. 163. Save that in the Trinity term of 1445 he was sued in the court of common pleas by the dean and chapter of Chichester for a debt of £12, little more is revealed about his commercial concerns.5 CP40/738, rot. 356. He is last recorded, as a witness to a deed at Lewes, in October 1448.6 C146/493.