FOWELL, William

Fowell was born into a minor gentry family with scattered landholdings in south-west Devon, including the family seat at Fowelscombe and a number of tenements in the nearby town of Totnes.9 C142/43/57. Fowell must be distinguished from several namesakes active in the same period, including a vicar of Exminster and a notary public of Wells: PCC 8 Horne (PROB11/11, f. 70); Reg. Lacy, ii (Canterbury and York Soc. lxi), 160. Although the Fowells were not of great prominence in the region, William’s father improved the family’s standing and connexions by his marriage to Mary Walrond, whose sister Joan was the wife of the influential Walter Reynell of Malston. This connexion would later be cemented further by William’s own marriage to Reynell’s daughter, his first cousin Eleanor.10 M. Cherry, ‘Crown and Political Community, Devon’ (Univ. of Wales, Swansea, Ph.D. thesis, 1981), 372.

The details of Fowell’s early life and education are obscure, but he may have trained in the law at London’s Middle Temple, of which he was a fellow later in life.11 Baker, ii. 1600. By the 1450s he had established a local practice in his native county. At the time of his return to Parliament in 1455 he was still at the very beginning of his professional career, and although as a lawyer with property within the town of Totnes he had the necessary credentials to secure election for the borough, it is probable that the influence of his uncle, Walter Reynell, who had represented Devon in the 1453 Parliament and was present at the shire elections of 1455, also played a part.

Fowell’s professional career remained essentially a local one. He is not known to have practiced in the Westminster law courts, instead finding employment in his native south-west as a feoffee, estate official and legal counsellor.12 C1/11/286; 26/178, 180; 235/15; C103/21/1; C4/3/16; CP40/835, rot. 257; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 246; N. Devon RO, Chichester of Arlington mss, 50/11/12/12, 19, 20, 23, 24; Devon RO, Dayman mss, Z16/1/1/15; Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Sloman mss, 457/2. As early as 1451 he was among the feoffees of the landed endowment of the Carew chantry at Luppitt;13 Reg. Lacy, iii. 389-92. in 1460 he was arbitrating a quarrel on behalf of Dame Margaret Pomeroy (widow of Edward Pomeroy† of Sandridge) in company with Nicholas Hervy*, John Denys* and Thomas Dowrich II*;14 Devon RO, Seymour of Berry Pomeroy mss, 3799M-0/ET/17/2. five years later he was chosen alongside Philip Courtenay† of Molland and William Menwenick* to make a similar award in a dispute between John Fortescue† and the prior of Modbury;15 Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Yonge of Puslinch mss, 107/638. and by the 1470s he was employed in the quarrel between Richard Fortescue* and Thomas Stonor II* on Stonor’s part. The surviving Stonor correspondence gives some indication of the nature of his dealings, as well as his widespread links in the county. So, in about 1473, Stonor’s bailiff, Thomas Mathew, reported to his master that Fowell had told him that ‘yff [Stonor] cowde schew [his] tytel gode of olde tyme, as [he had] sayde to hym that [he] hadde, yf he myзt have understondyng thereof by [him] or [his] councell that hyt myзt be schewyd to Syr Phylyp Courtenay and to Orchard, that he wolde doo hys goode wyll theryn to fulfylle [his] intent’.16 Stonor Letters, i (Cam. Soc. ser. 3, xxix), 130. Fowell maintained his connexion with the Stonors and some years later can be found advising Sir William Stonor† over the political and monetary value of the Devon shrievalty.17 Ibid. ii (Cam. Soc. ser. 3, xxx), 134. Eventually, Fowell also found some modest employment under the Crown as a member of a small number of ad hoc commissions.

Rather less is known of Fowell’s private activities. In 1462 he was associated with his father-in-law Reynell in the alleged abduction of a ward from the abbot of Tavistock’s custody,18 CP40/805, rot. 15d. while at other times he became embroiled in the petty squabbles common to the period. In about 1468 he was pursuing several former servants who had left his employment at Langford Barton in breach of the Statute of Labourers,19 CP40/830, rots. 45, 46d. while other litigation arose from his professional activities. One such instance was a suit brought in 1490 by John Wynell, his wife Christine and John Wolston, the heirs of the deceased Thomas Gille II*, who claimed that Fowell had been one of the dead man’s feoffees, a charge which the lawyer denied.20 C1/112/32-39.

Fowell is thought to have died on 23 Mar. 1507, and was followed to the grave by his wife within three weeks. Both were buried in the parish church of Ugborough.21 Vivian, 369; J. Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 207. He was succeeded by his elder son, Richard, who – as far as is known – never sat in Parliament himself, although his descendants continued the family’s tradition of parliamentary service in the sixteenth century and beyond.22 C142/43/57; C1/1218/38; The Commons 1509-58, iii. 157, 529-31; 1660-90, ii. 351-2. At Fowelscombe, remains of the family seat survive to the present day.23 N. Pevsner, Buildings of Eng.: Devon, 451.