Wood is not readily identifiable, since there were several Thomas Woods of Colchester, Colchester ct. rolls, passim. His namesakes included the town’s first major brewer of beer: R. Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 196-7. but he was probably the man born at Blackawton in Devon who became a burgess in 1437-8 and received a royal pardon describing him as a merchant and ‘gentleman’ in November 1452. D/B 5 Cr 55, m. 4; C67/40, m. 13. Presumably, the MP held the offices listed above because invariably those who sat for the borough in the Commons came from its ruling oligarchy. Wood sat in his only known Parliament in the wake of Cade’s rebellion. The rebellion affected Colchester, since there were disturbances there in early July 1450 and the following September. On the latter occasion, an armed mob claimed that Cade was still alive and swore to stand by him. The then bailiffs, Wood and Nicholas Peek*, arrested one of the ringleaders but a few days later his fellow insurgents broke into the town gaol and released him. I.M.W. Harvey, Jack Cade, 94, 143-4; KB27/772, rex rot. 6; CPR, 1446-52, pp. 415, 503. It is not known when Wood died, although in August 1467 the widowed Joan Wood was sued by the London mercer, John Middleton*, who claimed she owed him nearly £5. D/B 5 Cr73, m. 41.
