TOPCLIFFE, George

There seems no reason to doubt that the Scarborough MP of 1415 and 1431 is the same man who represented the borough in 1450. Aside from this there is little to add to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 634. In July 1432, in company with Robert Carthorpe*, he sued out a royal licence to export 300 quarters of grain to the Low Countries. He is generally described in the records as ‘yeoman’ or, more commonly, ‘merchant’, but, when in 1438 he was sued for a debt of 40 marks by the prior of Bridlington, he was designated a ‘gentleman’. C76/114, m. 6; CP40/644, rot. 338; 710, rot. 171d; 724, rot. 28.