BRANTHAM, Thomas

To add to the earlier biography,2 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 338. a surviving Dunwich borough minute book of the early fifteenth century provides various further details about Brantham’s career. It shows that he held property in All Saints’ parish (although he resided in that of St. John) and that he became a burgess of Dunwich by paying an entry fine, indicating that he was not a native of the town. It also shows that, like him, his wife Margery (or Margaret) was a brewer. The minute book suggests that he was one of the less wealthy residents of Dunwich since he contributed considerably less than other burgesses towards both borough fines and royal taxes during the second and third decades of the century. When, for example, the town’s inhabitants were assessed for the purposes of a royal tax in 1410, the wealthy John Moreff* paid 4s., another burgess, John Luke*, paid 12d. but Brantham paid only 4d. Later, when the Dunwich authorities instituted a land fine in the early 1420s as a means of supplying money to pay for the confirmation of the charter of liberties, Brantham contributed only 10d. but Moreff paid the much more considerable sum of 13s. 4d.3 Bailiffs’ Minute Bk. of Dunwich, 20, 73, 74, 76, 107, 108.

The minute book also contains evidence relating to Brantham’s involvement in local affairs. He was paid 4s. in 1410 to cover his expenses in visiting Cavendish (and possibly other places as well) on behalf of the borough, but for what purpose is not known. Three years later he and Thomas Clerk†, his fellow MP in the Parliament of May 1413, received £3 0s. 2d. for their combined expenses attending Parliament. As the assembly lasted for 27 days, this meant that they each received a daily wage of only just over 13d., but the corporation consistently paid its Members less than the official rate of 2s., probably because of its growing insolvency. The book also shows that Brantham and Thomas James†, rather than Nicholas Barber† and Philip Canon*, were the men elected to the Parliament of April 1414.4 Ibid. 70, 84-85, 87. The error-prone 18th-cent. antiquary, Thomas Gardner, identified Canon and Barber as Dunwich’s MPs in this assembly: T. Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 88. The Commons 1386-1421, i. 619, ii. 122, 474, repeats Gardner’s mistake. It is also from the book that we know that Brantham and John Polard* were the town’s MPs in the Parliament of 1425 (the Dunwich return for which has not survived), since it records the payment of several instalments of their parliamentary stipends. During the accounting year 1424-5, for example, the bailiffs delivered 36s. 8d. to Brantham and Polard, each of whom also received another 10s. that the town authorities had granted them in tolls.5 Bailiffs’ Minute Bk. 121, 128.