BAGG, James (d.1624), of Plymouth, Devon.

‘One of the meanest representatives of Plymouth’, Bagg was a moneylender, privateer, and merchant, supplying Plymouth with biscuit and lead when defence preparations were being undertaken there in 1599. From 1595 onwards he sent the authorities intelligence gained from ships putting into Plymouth. During his first mayoralty he tried unsuccessfully to obtain the appointment of a local governor of the royal fort. In the same year, but in his private capacity as litigant in a Star Chamber case, he was arrested by 12 armed men as he came from church. As Member for Plymouth in 1601 he was paid wages at the high rate of 10s. a day. He was buried on 6 Apr. 1604 at St. Andrew’s, Plymouth. In his will, made 23 Mar. 1624, he left £5 to the poor there and appointed his eldest son James executor and residuary legatee.1Roberts thesis; PCC 32 Clarke.