MOUNTFORT, William

More may be added to the earlier biography.4 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 800-1.

Mountfort apparently had two wives named Alice. His first wife must have died before January 1405, for Joan, widow of John Benefeld of Bridport, who then settled on him and Alice his wife a messuage in Stakelane off West Street, Bridport, next to her own home, referred to Mountfort’s wife as her daughter.5 C146/10183.

In the summer of 1419 Mountfort was summoned to the court of King’s bench to answer the accusations of William Carswell of Witney, Oxfordshire, recently taken prisoner at Leominster in Herefordshire on the serious charge of counterfeiting. Carswell, turning approver, said that he had originally been arrested at Bridport in September 1412 by Mountfort in his capacity as bailiff, after he had been found with gold, groats and ‘instrumentis falsis’ in his possession. Mountfort had taken him to the gaol at Dorchester, but then, on being offered £44, had allegedly let him go freely into sanctuary. Mountfort protested his innocence, and bail was provided for his reappearance in court in the following Michaelmas term. He duly attended, but it was not until Hilary term 1420 that a jury appeared to attest in his favour.6 KB27/633, rex rot. 10d. The case may have prompted Mountfort to seek election to the Parliament summoned to meet on 16 Oct. 1419, not only because he was travelling to Westminster to answer the charge but also to secure the privilege of freedom from arrest while the Parliament was in session. Mountfort was a litigious man. While up at Westminster for this same Parliament of 1419 he appeared in person in the court of common pleas to bring suits against a number of debtors, including John Bomel† of Dorchester, for sums amounting to over £38, and when there again for the Parliament of 1422 he brought further suits for debts of £24.7 CP40/635, rot. 368; 647, rot. 54. Later suits included one against the executors of John Stamp, a ‘gentleman’ and lawyer formerly living in Bridport.8 CP40/669, rot. 122.

Mountfort served as a juror at the inquisition post mortem held in Bridport in October 1430 following the death of (Sir) Edmund Cheyne*.9 C139/49/42. A dyer from Taunton, John George, named him as an executor, but as a consequence he found himself being sued in 1431 by Walter Hillary for a debt of £20 owed by the testator. At the same time he was busily prosecuting others from Taunton and Weymouth to make them pay the substantial sums of money they owed him.10 CP40/680, rots. 172, 249.

As the earlier biography makes clear, Mountfort became wealthy from supplying cordage to Henry V’s fleet as well as his other trading ventures, and he invested some of his profits in land. Yet although Mountfort bought the manor of Vere’s Wotton in Symondsbury from Walter Veer* of Hampshire, he did not keep it long, subsequently conveying it to John Bettiscombe*, a prominent local lawyer;11 J. Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 240-1. and he may not, as was previously thought, have actually purchased the property in Weymouth belonging to William Wyot* for almost £75 – rather, this transaction was a mortgage, which may have been later redeemed.12 CAD, vi. C6112. Mountfort produced no surviving children. The beneficiary of his successful commercial endeavours was his kinsman William Oliver I*.