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I. Sir John Fastolf's Lawsuit Over Titchwell 1448–55

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

P.S. Lewis
P.S. Lewis
Affiliation:
All Souls College, Oxford
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Extract

When Edmund Paston was at Clifford's Inn in the spring of 1445 he was firmly advised by his mother ‘to thynkk onis of the daie of yowre fadris Counseyle to lerne the lawe for he seyde manie tymis that ho so euer schuld dwelle at Paston schulde have nede to Conne defende hymselfe’. In this much-quoted remark as in other opinions her sound and sensible husband, judge William Paston, was far from being original. The advice was at least two centuries old, if not older; the popularity of law-books for their estate managers in the thirteenth century is evidence of how many landlords then took it to heart.1 A landowner's land was a permanent temptation for his neighbours; such legal knowledge in some degree was therefore vital to him or to his stewards for its defence. More violent action was restricted, if not wholly extinguished by twelfth-century legislation; but that legislation itself and later enactments provided new, more subtle and probably more certain ways of depriving an honest possessor of his property. And titles to land, complicated from the thirteenth century on by landowners’ increasing employment of the entail and the use, gave in the later Middle Ages ample scope for the dexterous at law. Lawsuits on three manors bought on dubious and complicated titles nearly doubled their cost for an over-eager Sir John Fastolf in the middle of the fifteenth century. As Agnes Paston told Edmund her son and as an anonymous versifier told other potential landowners, it was as well to beware.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1958 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1958

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References

1 Dorothea, Oschinsky, ‘Mediaeval Treatises on Estate Management’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., vm (1955–1956), 296–309Google Scholar.

2 [The] P[aston] L[etters, A.D. 1422–1509], ed. James Gairdner, 6 vols. (1904), 11, 72; the versifier is best printed in [K.B.] McFarlane, [‘The Investment of] Sir John Fastolf['s Profits of War’], Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., vn (1957), 112.

3 K.B., McFarlane, ‘William Worcesterf[: a Preliminary Survey‘], Studies Presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, ed. J., Conway Davies (Oxford, 1957), 198.Google Scholar Cf. V. H. Galbraith, Historical Research m Mediaeval England (The Creighton Lecture in History, 1949 (1951)), 44–5.

4 Its income in 1433–4 was £19- 7s-11 1/2d. ([Magdalen College Muniment Room,] F[astolf] P[apers] 9, m, a). Even as a bad tenancy in 1470 ‘the whole manor’ of Titchwell (possibly including a parcel called ‘James’ lands’ worth £2 a year) could still be farmed for £20 ([Magdalen College Muniment Room,] Tfitchwell] 60).

5 A valor of 1444–5 gives the purchase price (F.P. 69, m. 2). A letter of Fastolf in 1450 mentions a quittance of Roys for the purchase of Titchwell (P.L. 11, 188). The conveyancing was complicated, but the manor probably left Roys’ possession in November 1431 (T. 34).

6 P[ublic] Rfecord] O[ffice,] C 139/131, no. 18. The text of the inquisition misnames Thomas Wake ‘John’.

7 C[alendar of] P[atent] R[olls] 1446–32, 210; C[alendar of] F[ine] R[olls] 1445–52, 105.

8 John Hull was called king's esquire at least by 1415 (C[alendar of] C[lose] R[olls] 1413–19, 212). His wife was in Queen Joan's service at least by 1417 (C.P.R. 1416–22, 304).

9 Wedgwood, J. C., [History of Parliament, Biographies 1439–1509 (1936),] 481Google Scholar, gives the date of his birth and 1431 as the date of his marriage, both without authority. The first reference to Margery and Edward Hull together appears to be in November 1441 (C.C.R. 1441–47, 9–10). (Wedgwood's accounts of both Hull and Wake cannot unfortunately be used without the utmost caution.)

10 Proceedings of the Privy Council, ed. Harris, Nicolas, iv (1835), 77.Google Scholar

11 C.P.R. 1436–41, 232.

12 C.P.R. 1436–46, C.F.R. 1437–45, passim; T., Carte, Catalogue des rollesgascons, normans et françois, 2 vols. (1743), II 287Google Scholar; P.R.O. E 101/53/27.

13 Official Correspondence of Thomas. Bekynton, ed. G. Williams, 2 vols. (Rolls Series, 1872), II, 177–248.

14 P.R.O. E 101/193/9, no. 6; E 364/84, m. 1.

15 Hull's accounts are enrolled for the periods 17 Sept. 1442-Michaelmas 1446 (P.R.O. E 364/84), Michaelmas 1446–24 June 1451 (E 364/91), 20 Oct. 1452–18 July 1453 (E 364/92). Bundles of receipts, etc. remain in P.R.O. E 101/193/9–15. There are two strays in the B[ritish] Mfuseum] Harleian Charters 42 B 52, 53. George Swillington was a member of the Council of Guyenne and held important crown lands in the duchy (Archives Historiques du Departement de la Gironde, xvi (Bordeaux, 1878), 281–3, 290, 363).

16 R., Somerville, History of the Duchy of Lancaster, I (1953). 210Google Scholar.

17 Wedgwood, 482.

18 C.P.R. 1446–52, C.F.R. 1445–52, passim; called queen's carver C.P.R. 1446–52, 210.

19 Victoria County History of England, Northamptonshire Families, ed. Oswald, Barron (1906), 321Google Scholar.

20 Ibid.; C.P.R. 1436–52, C.F.R. 1437–52, passim; Wedgwood, 913.

21 P.L. II, 41–3. He assisted Fastolf over the purchase of a manor in Gorleston (near Great Yarmouth) in 1433–4 (F.P. 9, m. 5).

22 The original grant is undated (T. 203); the letters of attorney for delivery of seisin are dated 3 June 1270 (T. 174) and so is a notice of the gift to the inhabitants of Titchwell (T. 183).

23 The grant is dated 3 May (T. 98).

24 According to his inquisition post mortem Ralph died in February 1362 (C[alendar of] Inq[uisitions] P[ost] M[ortem], XI, 276). Joan conveyed her interest to feoffees in June 1363 (T. 66).

25 Ralph II was in possession by April 1378 (T. 90). No inquisition post mortem seems to have been taken after his death; his will, dated June 1405, survives in Norwich Probate Registry, Reg. Harsyk, fo. 325. It was proved in July 1405.

26 William was alleged to have been killed at Agincourt in a letter to Fastolf from three of his servants written on 12 Jan. 1449 (T. 158). This is now missing; I owe my knowledge of it to [W. D.] Macray['s manuscript catalogue of Magdalen College Muniments], Norfolk, in, 162. William was certainly at Agincourt in the retinue of the duke of Gloucester (Harris, Nicolas, The Battle of Agincourt (1832), 334Google Scholar); and he was certainly dead by December 1418 (T. 46). The date of Margery's death is given in the 1448 inquisition as 6 Sept. 1424.

27 The original deeds creating the uses are dated 21 June 1415 (T. 84) and 8 Dec. 1418 (T. 46). Mid-fifteenth century copies of both show that Fastolf's lawyers were interested in them (T. 156, 173). A deed giving Margaret and her second husband an annual rent as dower in Titchwell is dated 20 Sept. 1421 (T. 78); dower was assigned there to Matilda, widow of Thomas Lovel of Titchwell, on 23 Nov. 1330 (C.C.R. 1330–33, 393–5)

28 The date of Thomas I Lovel's birth is unknown; he married first, about 1387, Joan Hogshaw, co-heiress, with her sister Margaret wife of John Bluet, of their brother Edmund (who died in 1388), heir of their father Sir Thomas Hogshaw of Milstead in Kent and their maternal grandfather Sir Edmund Clevedon of Milton Clevedon; second, Eleanor widow of John Huntley of Adbeer in Somerset; and died on 11 Sept. 1401 (P.R.O. C 137/23, no. 34; E 149/79, no. 11). Thomas II was born on 23 April 1388 (C 137/77, no. 24); married by November 1410 Alice daughter of John Roger of Bridport (C.P.R. 1408–13, 273); and died on 10 Sept. 1414 (P.R.O. C 138/8, no. 30). His daughters Agnes and Margery were born about 1410 and 1411 (ibid.).

29 See below, p. 8. For John Heydon see Wedgwood, 452–3; P.L. passim,

30 B.M. Add. MS. 39848, fo. 17 (abstracted P.L. 11, 233); P.L. 11, 201–2.

31 Lawsuits on the three manors of Titchwell, Beighton and Bradwell cost Fastolf £1085 in ten years: F.P. 42 contains details of the expenses. Dalling was alleged to have forged the Bradwell inquisition as well as that of Titchwell (P.L. II, 202).

32 As farmer under Hull Willy complained to Howes of Fastolf's interference in the manor about this time (T. 208). He is called Hull's deputy in F.P. 42, m. 3.

33 Howes and Sparling to Fastolf (T. 41).

34 Filed with P.R.O. C 139/131, no. 18.

35 T. 41.

36 Ibid.

37 P.L. n, 137.

38 Holdsworth, History of English Law, IX (1926Google Scholar), 24–6; Staunford, The King's Prerogative (1607), fos. 60r-70v; Statutes of the Realm (Record Commission Edition), I (1810), 368, 374–5 (Statutes 34 Edw. III c. 14, 36 Edw. III c. 13).

39 The chronology of the lawsuit depends on F.P. 42, as no pleadings save the initial and final ones seem to survive. Its dating is perhaps rather casual; and there is an inactive year from autumn 1449 to autumn 1450. (No membrane of the manuscript is missing.)

40 Howes, Shipdam and Sparling to Fastolf, 12 Jan. 1449 (T. 158, now missing; Macray, Norfolk, in, 162).

41 Fastolf to Howes, Cole and Shipdam, undated ([Magdalen College Muniment Room, Adds. 99 (the] L[ovel] Pfapers),] 23). T. 14 is Fastolf's copy of the entail; the point he makes here is noted on it.

42 ‘I knew neuere of oyer ne terminer’, wrote Worcester to John Paston at one time, ‘ne rad neuere patent before ne my maister [Fastolf] knew neuere the condyt of such thyngs; and when he wrote of hys grevonse to hys frendys he commaunded no man to be endyted for he wyst not whate belonged to such thyngs ne the parson [Sir Thomas Howes] neyther but remitted it to hys councell lerned’ (P.L. III, 105).

43 Fastolf to Howes, undated (T. 170, now missing; Macray, Norfolk, m, 164).

44 F.P. 42, m.2.

45 Ibid.

46 On the files survive clear and accurate extracts from the Feudal Aids (L.P. 9–11), a copy of the inquisition post mortem of Sir Edmund Clevedon, the grandfather of Thomas I Lovel of Clevedon's wife (L.P. 15) and a copy of a writ to the sheriff of Worcester which has endorsed note of its genealogical content (L.P. 17).

47 F.P. 42, m. 2.

48 L.P. 21, 22.

49 Four coats of arms of Lovel and one of Clevedon remain amongst the Lovel Papers; for a description of the tomb see Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, LXXI (1925), 51–2. As Crop said the tomb was a knight's it is presumably that, of Thomas II Lovel. (Despite some confusion it seems clear that he was knighted, while his father remained an esquire (P.R.O. C 137/77, no- 24, C 138/8, no. 30).)

50 A niece of John VI lord Lovel (who died in 1414) married as her second husband Sir Richard Stafford, and her daughter Avice married James Butler 5th earl of Ormond and died in 1456 (ockayne, G.E.C, The Complete Peerage, revised and ed. Gibbs, , Doubleday, , Howard, de Walden and White, (1910– ),] II, 361–2Google Scholar). John Talbot later 2nd earl of Shrewsbury certainly married Elizabeth Butler, the latter's sister, about 1444–5 (G.E.C. xi, 705).

51 Possibly the Guy Brian who died in 1386, leaving a wife Alice, of now unknown parentage (G.E.C. n, 362). Her father could have been John III or John V lord Lovel (G.E.C. VIII, 218–21). It is also possible the baker's memory was no better than the aged men's and he was being confused by the fact that John V lord Lovel's son Robert married Elizabeth granddaughter and co-heiress of Guy lord Brian (ibid. 221).

52 Margaret Hastings, The Court of Common Pleas in Fifteenth Century England (Cornell, 1947). 277Google Scholar; PL. III, 138.

53 For John Austell see Wedgwood, 30.

54 L.P. 7. G.E.C. IV, 376 is probably wrong in making Philippa Dinham the daughter of John VI rather than John V lord Lovel.

55 L.P. 8.

56 L.P. 2. Although he identified correctly John (later VI lord Lovel), Ralph, canon of Salisbury and rector of Stanton Harcourt, Thomas (who probably died young), Maud abbess of Romsey, an anonymous Minoress in London, and Philippa lady Dinham, he left out at least the Robert who married Elizabeth Brian and lived at Rampisham, although he mentioned his existence in the same document.

57 His father John Huntley died in 1376 (C.F.R. 1369–77, 376) and he himself, well over eighty, in 1460 (ibid. 1452–61, 246–7). The list of questions is now L.P. 13.

58 These appear in their notes and lists of questions, especially L.P. 3, 8 and 13.

59 L.P. 12. He followed Filongley's messenger with a letter offering all the help he could (L.P. 16). It seems probable that at some time after this Worcester was sent down to Somerset again to bring him up to London for further interrogation (F.P. 72, m. 8).

60 L.P. 3 (an opinion marked ‘F’). John V lord Lovel did have a son called Thomas, but he was still alive in 1409 (C.C.R. 1409–13, 75) and Thomas I Lovel of Clevedon died in 1401. At least one witness pointed out that the former Thomas was irrelevant (L.P. 8).

60 L.P. 3 (an opinion marked ‘HF’); L.P. 1 (b), 4. John V's brother, John IV lord Lovel, died at least without legitimate children in 1361.

62 L.P. 2.

63 C.P.R. 1408–13, 273. Ralph II Lovel of Titchwell and Thomas I Lovel of Clevedon may have been together with John V lord Lovel in Ireland in the 1380's and 1390's (C.P.R. 1377–81, 409; ibid. 1301–96, 486; ibid. 1396–99, 571); if this was family solidarity it may have given Sir Edward Hull such clues as he had about the Titchwell Lovels.

64 Drafts for pleadings, undated (T. 198).

65 C. Inq. P.M. VIII, 2–3; C.C.R. 1333–37, 563. This inquisition was much copied by Fastolf's servants (T. 1, 140, 194). A note on T. 1 shows that Fastolf thought it important and wondered if his lawyers did too. (He had had it exemplified under the Great Seal on 23 Aug. 1455, during the final proceedings (T. 30).)

66 P.L. 11, 199, 168.

67 F.P. 42, m. 3.

68 B.M. Add. MS. 39848, fo. 9 (abstracted P.L. 11, 188–9).

69 T. 83.

70 P.L. II, 201.

71 MS. in the possession of K. B. McFarlane, esq. (abstracted P.L. III, 191).

72 P.L. II, 200.

73 B.M. Add. MS. 39848, fo. 15 (abstracted P.L. II, 212). The jurors of the 1448 inquisition were also to certify before the commissioners (ibid, II, 201).

74 B.M. Add. MS. 39848, fo. 17 (abstracted P.L. II, 233).

75 T. 212.

76 T. 19.

77 F.P. 42, m. 3.

78 For Fastolf's views see Worcester's note in The Boke of Noblesse, ed. Nichols, J. G. (Roxburghe Club, 1860), 64–5;Google Scholar for the trouble they caused him see the Dictionary of National Biography, vi, 1099–1104, and McFarlane, ‘William Worcester’, 200.

79 C.P.R. 1446–61, C.F.R. 1445–52, passim.

80 C.P.R. 1446–52, 429.

81 His will was made on 26 Aug. ([The] Reg[ister of Thomas] Bekynton, ed. Maxwell-Lyte, H. C. and Dawes, M.C.B., Somerset Record Society, 49–50Google Scholar (1934–5), I, 224); for details of his voyage to Aquitaine see C.P.R. 1452–61, 108.

82 J., Anstis, The Order of the Garter, 2 vols. (1724), II, 150–1.Google Scholar He had failed to be elected in 1449 (ibid. 143).

83 Wedgwood's emendation of Stow is unwary. An English Chronicle, ed. Davies, J. S., Camden Old Series, 64 (1856)Google Scholar, is suffering from a misplaced editorial semi-colon on p. 70. Hull's inquisition post mortem (P.R.O. C 139/155, no. 41) in fact gives the date of his death fictitiously as 3 Sept. 1453. On his accounts the date is given as 18 July 1453 (P.R.O. E 364/192, m. 1); Hull must have been killed on 17 July or died of his wounds the following day. A writ of diem clausit was issued on 28 Oct. (C.F.R. 1452–61, 55) and the inquisition was taken on 5 and 7 Nov. On the 10th Bishop Beckington commissioned the collecting of his debts (Reg. Bekynton, 1, 221). In January Eleanor Hull was granted administration of his will (ibid. 224). An obit was performed for him in Bridgwater that year (Bridgwater Borough Archives, ed. T. B. Dilks, iv, Somerset Record Society, LX (1945), 72).

84 C.F.R. 1452–61, 64.

85 F.P. 42, m. 3.

86 Draft letters patent for committal of Titchwell to Filongley and Jenney (T. 207); C.F.R. 1452–61, 132.

87 Record of process in Chancery and in the King's Bench (P.R.O. K.B. 27/777, m. 44r); Adds. 64 is Fastolf's copy of this.

88 T. 68, T. 75.

89 In a letter to Bishop Waynflete, now administrator of Sir John Fastolf's will, on 1 March 1470 he advised him to farm the then vacant manor for, he wrote, if 'som men that claymed the seid maner & disseysed my maister Fastolf vij yere & more knew yt they wold lyghtly entre yn yt vppon her holde tytle & glayme’ (F.P. 96).

90 F.P. 72; the phrase is William Paston's about Worcester's labours (P.L. III, 192); McFariane, 'sir John Fastolf, III-14.

91 Ibid. 113; ‘William Worcester’, passim.

92 I am indebted for help on them to Mr P. T. V. M. Chaplais, Mr G. D. G. Hall, Dr G. A. Holmes and, above all, to Mr K. B. McFariane.