WOOD, Richard, of Devon.

In June 1417 it was alleged that Richard atte Wood, along with two kinsmen of his, had polluted the cemetery at Sutcombe, Devon, in the course of their quarrel with Thomas Glanvyle, but Bishop Stafford found that this had not, in fact, been the case. In 1428 the same man was recorded as holding lands in Sutcombe, St. Pancras Week, Putford, Stowford and Bradworthy.Reg. Stafford ed. Hingeston-Randolph, 343; Feudal Aids, i. 457, 459. However, it is uncertain whether he was the person who, then called simply Richard Wood, represented Barnstaple in 1421 and 1422. During the second of these Parliaments the MP was probably involved in the negotiations for the grant of 28 June 1423 by which the burgesses of Barnstaple, which was of ancient demesne of the Crown, were confirmed in such freedom from tolls as their predecessors had enjoyed. On the very day of the grant, Wood stood surety at the Exchequer for John Medelond and Robert Heth, the keepers of the King’s silver and lead mines in the parish of Bere Ferrers.CFR, xv. 40; Reprint of Barnstaple Recs. ed. Chanter and Wainwright, i. 109.