William Dymes

  General Notes:

In 1560, William became a burgess of Southampton "William Demes was admitted to be one of the guilde the xx day of November 1560 by the assent of Mr. Mayor and his brethren Franke and the for that he was Mr. John Capelyn's burgess"., The Mayor John Capelyn exercised his right in appointing a burgess. It may have been that William had been an apprentice for John Capelyn previously.
William was a shearman and was also recorded and being granted a license to set up a mercer in 1562, paying 6s 8d for the privilege.
In 1567 he was recorded as having two servants John Blackeburn and Thomas Tailor. He leased a house in Holy Rood parish where he had his shop and living quarters. The house contained a hall, a parlour and a buttery downstairs, a gallery and two chambers upstairs.
In 1567 a muster was drawn up to assess the strength of defences in the town in manpower and weopenry. William is included and he was shown to hold a quantity of equipment; "a pair of almain rivets, a hargabosier, a morion, a bow, a sheaf of arrows and a halbert." The hargabosier was probably a kind of musket and a morion was a helmet. William was mentioned again in 1570 as holding weapons, six calivers, a type of light musket, which he had captured from some Frenchmen at Mead Hole on the North East coast of the Isle of Wight, which was a well known base for pirates and smugglers. He took those from his house to the Audit House where weapons for the defence of the town were stored.
In 1570 William received 20 shillings in John Capelyn's will.
As a prominent citizen of the town of Southampton, William ook part in the plans for a new markey building and was also called upon to act as an appraiser for drawing up the inventory for the shop of William Biston and for the estate of John Lutchtying.
William died in 1570. His will which had been drawn up in 1563 was proved in the early part of 1571. Describing himself as William Dymes of Southampton, a shearman and burgess of the town, he left 20 shillings each to his brothers Thomas and John and sister Agnes in his will and confirmed that his wife's children and his servant, yet another Agnes, should receive the legacies left to them by his wife's mother. He also left money for the relief of the poor of Southampton and ten shillings toward the building of a grammar school in the town. How much education he had received is unknown as although he was a craftsman he did not sign his name but used a swastika as his mark on documents. His wife was his main beneficiary but he requested that after her death, her son Hugh should inherit the lease on his house if it had not expired and his nephew William Demes was to have all the tools of his trade.

William married Agnes Riggs, daughter of Thomas Riggs and Jane.