William Codeshall
Mayor of Oxford 1370/1, 1371/2, 1373/4, 1374/5, 1375/6, 1379/80
William Codeshall (or de Codeshale/Coteshale) was an Oxford brewer. He was elected Senior Bailiff in 1364.
On 3 June 1369 Codeshall was elected one of the two Members of Parliament for Oxford, and was re-elected on 24 February 1370/1, 8 June 1371, 21 November 1373, 12 Feruary 1375/6, 28 April 1376, and 13 October 1377.
Codeshall was elected Mayor in 1370 and 1371, and again for three years running from 1373 to 1375. Two certificates stating that he took the Mayor’s Oath at Westminster (dated 30 October 1370 and 1 October 1373) survive in the City Archives.
In 1370 a hall called Broadgates in St Michael’s parish at South Gate was conveyed jointly to Codeshall and Geoffrey Ludwell by William Shareshull and his wife Marion Flemming.
In 1378 the council let to Codeshall and others some derelict tenements in Shoe Lane, on condition that they shut it off by building a stone wall at the east end next to North Gate (Cornmarket) Street and a great gate at the west end towards what is now New Inn Hall Street.
Codeshall was one of the four Aldermen in 1377 and 1378, and was elected Mayor for the sixth and last time in 1379.
Codeshall is listed in 1380 under the South-West Ward as paying poll tax for himself, his wife Alice, Thomas Brewer and John Cole (his carters), John Cornish (his brewer), Thomas Cornish (his maltman), and other servants called John Wardale, John Merston, Joanna, and Alice Leche.
Codeshall was again chosen as one of the four Aldermen in 1380, 1382, 1384, and 1385.
On 31 July 1383 the City demised to Codeshall and his wife Alice a strip of land adjoining St Martin’s Church.