TOUR, Simon, of Shrewsbury, Salop.

Tour’s grandfather, John, had been bailiff of Shrewsbury in 1337-8. His father appeared on the burgess roll of 1384 and was still alive in 1390, by which time he himself had begun to participate in local government.Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), ii. 270; v. 37. He may have been a vintner by trade, for in 1388-9 he was reimbursed 7s.2d. for wine provided at various local events. While serving as one of the six supersedentes or assessors of the borough, he was chosen in August 1389 as a member of the council of 12. Tour obtained a royal licence on 15 Sept. 1390 to travel abroad on a pilgrimage, but returned home within a year, to be elected bailiff for the first of three terms. At a special meeting of the Shrewsbury guild merchant in December 1397, when he was one of the assessors, his sons, William and Richard, and a servant (presumably an apprentice) of his were all admitted to the freedom of the borough. Tour, who was very frequently called upon to witness local conveyances, was returned to Parliament for the only recorded time during his second term of office as bailiff. In December 1416 he was among the burgesses who, in the common hall, gave their assent to new ordinances for the more equitable collection of the ‘taske’ of the town.Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II, 67, f. 84; box VIII, 350; CPR, 1396-9, pp. 472-5; CCR, 1389-92, p. 571; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), iii. 79; v. 40-41.

Sometimes Tour was more intimately involved in the affairs of his fellow burgesses: in August 1410 he was party to the indenture drawn up to settle the quarrel between Nicholas Gerard, the constable of Shrewsbury castle, and Urian St. Pierre, entering into a bond for £100 that the former would keep his part of the agreement; and when, in 1411, Thomas Skinner made his will, he was instructed, as one of the executors, to found a chantry in the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr in St. Chad’s church. Skinner bequeathed to him a silver goblet and £2 for this special service. In the meantime, in February 1400, two horses worth £10 had been stolen from him by certain Welshmen who, however, were later indicted of the crime before the j.p.s at Shrewsbury; and, at the assizes of July 1401, he himself had been accused of unlawfully disseising the hospital of St. John the Baptist of four shops in the town.Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. liv. 102-4; PCC 34 Marche; Salop Peace Roll ed. Kimball, 54; JUST 1/750 m. 1d. The legality of the tenure of his property in ‘Ratones Lane’ (now School Lane) and in High Street, along with that of a parcel of land called ‘Cokkespulles’ in Ford a few miles away, would appear to have been beyond question.Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 1), ix. 92; (ser. 3), vi. 390; Shrewsbury Lib. deeds 3752, 3890, 3915, 11168. In 1413 Simon assisted his brother William, a wealthy draper (and bailiff in 1405-6, 1410-11, 1423-4, and 1427-8), in making a settlement of premises in the High Street, ‘Knokynne’s Lane’ (now Hill Lane) and Castle Foregate, of which they had been enfeoffed by the widow of James Burley on behalf of her son William (later MP for Shrewsbury in 1427 and 1437), who had married William Tour’s daughter, Isabel. Simon died before William, who by his will of January 1432 founded a chantry in the collegiate church of St. Mary at Shrewsbury by grant of property near its cemetery and next to a house which had belonged to his late brother.Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 1), vii. 199; viii. 269; (ser. 3), vi. 345, 386, 390; ix. 100; Shrewsbury Lib. deeds 3923, 3954; Add. 30321, f. 16. Simon’s sons probably predeceased him, for alongside his name on the guild merchant roll of 1397 were later inserted the words ‘mortuus sine herede’ His widow, however, long outlived him and by 1450 had married John Parys. After her death Tour’s lands reverted to a great-niece of his and, through her marriage, passed to the Mytton family.Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), iii. 79; CP25(1)195/22/34, 35.