SHOTTON, John, of Shrewsbury, Salop.

Shotton, from which John’s family derived its name, was a hamlet situated within the ancient liberty of Shrewsbury. John, like his brother, father, and grandfather (John Shotton, the bailiff of 1363-4), was engaged in the cloth trade, and during his first year as an assessor of the borough he provided fabric for the robes of the bailiffs, the six assessors, the clerk and the sub-bailiff, at the price of £9 3s.5d.CPR, 1370-4, p. 104; Add. 30321 ff. 17, 58, 62; E101/344/18 m. 3; Shrewsbury Guildhall, box VIII, 355. In August 1411 he and his brother Nicholas (coroner of Shrewsbury in 1407-8, and bailiff in 1408-9, 1414-15, 1422-3 and 1433-4),Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 1), iii. 242-3; CFR, x. 120; Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II, 67 f. 48. were indicted before the j.p.s at Shrewsbury for having sold there the previous autumn webs of cloth containing 12 measures instead of the statutory 14, so making a profit of 6s.8d.on each. Both brothers took out royal pardons in September 1415 at the commencement of John’s first bailiffship and only shortly before his election to Parliament, but were indicted again for illegally selling a brewing of ale containing 480 gallons every week of his term of office at 1d. per gallon, the proceeds totalling £104. In May 1417, described as draper alias brewer, John purchased another pardon for £5.Salop Peace Roll ed. Kimball, 101; KB27/613 rex m. 13; CPR, 1416-22, p. 89.

In the meantime, in January 1407, Shotton had been appointed as an attorney to deliver possession of the disputed Russell properties in Coleham, Abbey Foregate and Shrewsbury to Urian St. Pierre; and as a consequence he become involved in the latter’s quarrel with Nicholas Gerard. Later that year he acted as an attorney for St. Pierre’s brother-in-law, Sir Roger Acton, in his suit with William Horde.Add. 30319 f. 91; Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II, 67 f. 38; JUST 1/750 mm. 3-4. Long afterwards, in 1429, having twice more held office as a bailiff, Shotton purchased two messuages in Shrewsbury, but it was his son, John junior, who in the same year, at Shrewsbury castle, attended the elections of the knights of the shire, and probably he, too, who in November 1431 was a juror at Shrewsbury to assess contributions to a royal aid, for he was then bailiff. Nevertheless, our MP was still alive in 1435, being then elected to the council of 12.CP25(1)195/22/6; C219/14/1; Feudal Aids, iv. 259; Add. 30321 ff. 13, 16; Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II, 67f. 16d. The players of Lord Grey performed at the Shrewsbury wedding in 1426-7 of John Shotton ‘junior’, so it was probably he who, between Nov. 1435 and Nov. 1436, accounted at the Exchequer for part of the estates of Joan, late the wife of Sir John Grey. A merchant, he acted as borough coroner in 1429-30 and was among the first aldermen of Shrewsbury to be elected, in 1444. He died before 1453. Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II, 67 f. 15d, box VIII, 363; E364/78 m. B; Shrewsbury Lib. deed 121; H. Owen and J.B. Blakeway, Hist. Shrewsbury, i. 212.