CHATERLEY, Richard

Richard Chaterley first appears in the records in June 1439 when he was commissioned to investigate wastes committed in the property of the hospital of St. Nicholas in Richmond. This is not evidence that he was a Yorkshireman: it is rather the first indication of his association with another member of this commission, William Ayscogh (d.c.1455), promoted to the bench of the common pleas in the following year and a patron of both the hospital and our MP. Ayscogh’s petition to the chancellor had provoked the issue of the commission and Chaterley had acted as one of the pledges for the petition’s prosecution.3 CPR, 1436-41, p. 314; VCH Yorks. iii. 322-3; C1/11/220. It is more likely that Richard was born in the borough he represented in Parliament and that he was the brother of another of the borough’s MPs, Thomas Chaterley.4 They were probably both related to John Chaterley, a shoemaker of Derby, who attested several of the borough’s parlty. elections, including that of Oct. 1449 at which both Richard and Thomas were elected: CPR, 1446-52, p. 418; C219/15/7, 16/2, 3, 5, 17/2. In any event, he had settled in Derby by 1442 when he purchased six messuages and 30 acres of land in remainder expectant on the death of Isabel, widow of Ralph Shore*, a reversion that appears to have fallen in by 1451, when our MP was assessed on an income of £3 p.a. in the town.5 Derbys. Feet of Fines (Derbys. Rec. Soc. xi), 1094; E179/91/73. In 1444 he was described as ‘of Derby, gentleman’ when he offered mainprise for a yeoman of the town: KB27/734, rex rot. 7d.

By the time Chaterley purchased this property in Derby he was already established as a lawyer of some local significance. On 20 June 1441 he was named as the associate to the assize justices on the Midland circuit, an appointment he presumably owed to Ayscogh, who was then serving on that circuit. He was active in the role, sitting, for example, with Ayscogh at gaol deliveries held at Leicester and Nottingham in 1445 and with the other assize justice, John Portington, at the Warwick assizes of July 1447.6 C66/450, m. 9d; CPR, 1446-52, p. 48; KB27/738, rex rot. 26d; KB9/250/17; CP40/742, rot. 318. Interestingly, in c.1444, as clerk of the assize justices, he was given a present of a doe by Ralph Shirley of Staunton Harold (Leics.): E. Acheson, Leics. in 15th Cent. 75. He also practised in the central courts. In Trinity term 1445 he took office as the clerk in the court of common pleas responsible for dealing with suits from Derbyshire and neighbouring counties, an appointment which again he may have owed to Ayscogh. His office made him an obvious choice as an attorney and pledge for his neighbours in Derby. In 1447, for example, he acted as a pledge that Henry Spicer* would prosecute an action of debt; as a mainpernor for the appearance of Thomas Agard* to answer concerning an outlawry; and in the same capacity for the payment of fines of 20s. each imposed upon Robert Nundy* and Elias Tyldesley*.7 CP40/738, rot. 64; 744, rot. 119d; 745, rot. 245; KB27/744, fines rot. 1d. He is also found acting as an attorney for leading local gentry: as early as 1441 he had represented Sir Henry Pierrepont* before the assize justices at Nottingham; in the late 1440s he was attorney in the common pleas for Sir Thomas Chaworth* and Thomas Ferrers, younger son and heir male of William, Lord Ferrers of Groby; and in the early 1450s he acted in the same capacity John Cokayne, John Gresley* and John Bellers*.8 CP40/720, rot. 137; 740, rot. 181; 754, att. rot. 1; 758, rot. 257; 768, att. rot. 2; 777, rot. 422.

Since Chaterley’s clerkship meant that he spent much time at Westminster – he is occasionally styled ‘of London, gentleman’ in the records – he was a natural choice to represent Derby in Parliament, and, on 29 Oct. 1449, the townsmen duly elected him to sit with his putative brother, Thomas, a yeoman of the Crown. During the last session of this Parliament he was named along with the two Nottinghamshire MPs, John Stanhope* and Henry Boson*, to inquire in four Midland counties into concealments of deodands and the chattels of suicides, earlier assigned to the royal almoner to be applied in alms. At the next Derby election in 1450 he offered surety for Agard, a servant of Walter Blount*.9 CP40/769, rot. 314d; C219/15/7, 16/1; CPR, 1446-52, p. 384.

Chaterley continued to act in concert with the Midland assize justices, receiving his last commission as their associate in July 1458.10 C66/485, m. 7d. Earlier, in Easter term 1457, he had surrendered his office of filacer, and it may be that illness was the reason for this shedding of responsibilities.11 He was replaced by Robert Beaufitz, who may have been MP for Farnham in 1460: CP40/785-6; M. Hastings, Ct. Common Pleas, 147. In February 1458 he sued out a general pardon as ‘of Leicester, gentleman’;12 C67/42, m. 31. He is accorded the same designation in 1453 when he offered mainprise in the ct. of King’s bench for a burgess of Leicester, but it is not known how he came to be associated with that town: KB27/770, rex rot. 8. and in following Trinity term he personally appeared in the common pleas to defend an action of debt of ten marks sued against him by another former filacer, Richard Bruyn*, on a bond of as long before as 1441.13 CP40/790, rot. 451. Bruyn been our MP’s predecessor as the associate justice on the Midland circuit, and it may be that the bond was concerned with the transfer of the office. He was, however, dead by February 1459 when John Morgan succeeded him as the associate to the Midland assize justices.14 C66/486, m. 12d.