GIFFARD, Thomas

The Giffards were an ancient Devon family resident at Halsbury to the south-west of Barnstaple, who traced their lineage back to Walter Giffard, a companion of the Conqueror at Hastings whose son was subsequently created earl of Buckingham.9 Vivian, 396; CP, ii. 386. In spite of these supposed noble origins, by the fifteenth century the family was of much lower standing, and held their modest estates from the Holand earls of Huntingdon and dukes of Exeter.10 CFR, xviii. 75; C139/147/30. The manor of Halsbury aside, the family’s holdings were in their majority small parcels of land and individual tenements scattered throughout northern Devon, the total value of which is difficult to establish, although in 1436 Thomas Giffard’s income was assessed at some £22 p.a.11 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 680; E150/167/14; CP40/708, rot. 336d; 718, rot. 522; E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 14(i). The date of the later MP’s birth cannot be established with any degree of certainty, but in 1442 he claimed to be aged 30 years and more, suggesting that he was probably born sometime in the later years of Henry IV’s reign. Nothing is recorded of his early life and education, although he evidently received some training in the law, for throughout his documented career he is found practicing as an attorney, a feoffee and a professional surety in the Westminster law courts, and on several occasions in the 1430s and 1440s he was described as a ‘litteratus’.12 Reg. Lacy, iii. 366; Reg. Lacy ed. Hingeston-Randolph, i. 229, 249. The clients whom he served were usually drawn from the ranks of the lesser gentry and clergy of Devon and Cornwall, but Giffard was nevertheless professionally associated with prominent south-western men-of-law such as Nicholas Radford*, John More of Collumpton, John Wydeslade*, William Hyndeston*, Adam Somaster* and his own kinsman, John Giffard of Yeo.13 CP25(1)/46/82/79; 83/109; 85/151, 166, 167; 86/176, 194; 87/203; C1/9/431; KB27/703, rot. 56d; 736, rex rot. 9; E159/202, recorda Hil. rots. 5, 6; CFR, xvi. 176; CCR, 1441-7, p. 367; 1447-54, pp. 150-2, 216; Reg. Lacy ed. Hingeston-Randolph, i. 229, 249; Reg. Lacy, iii. 356, 366.

It is probable that it was Giffard’s professional reputation that recommended him to the burgesses of Liskeard, who returned him to Parliament in 1431 alongside another lawyer, Robert Skelton I*. Nothing is recorded of Giffard’s activity in the Commons, but he may in some way have attracted the government’s attention, since less than a year after the dissolution he was appointed controller of customs at Exeter and Dartmouth. While still serving in this capacity, he was sent to the Commons once more, this time by the north Devon port of Barnstaple. This borough he could with some justification regard as his home town, for he held land in the locality and was closely connected with the borough’s merchant community. While Giffard was sitting in this Parliament his was replaced as controller. This did not, however, put an end to his public career. In the autumn of 1434 the new sheriff of Cornwall, Thomas Bonville*, a man with whom Giffard had previous professional connexions, appointed him his under sheriff, and he was to serve a second term in the same post in 1439-40 during the shrievalty of Sir Thomas Beauchamp*.14 KB27/686, rot. 53d; 696, rex rot. 5d; Exeter receiver’s acct. 18-19 Hen VI, m. 3; E13/141, rots. 41, 44d Questions were subsequently raised over his conduct while in office: not only was he accused of packing trial juries in favour of the notorious Richard Tregoose*,15 KB27/696, rex rot. 5d. but in July 1440 he was said to have usurped the place of presiding judge in the county court, a function deemed to be reserved to the sheriff himself.16 CP40/728, rot. 463. In the second half of 1435 he appears openly to have abused his position to secure a third term in the Commons, for he was still in office when he secured election for the Cornish borough of Lostwithiel. If there was indeed something illicit about Giffard’s election, it does not appear to have affected his later career, for he went on to be appointed to occasional royal commissions, and in 1443-4 officiated as a customs collector in the Cornish ports.17 E122/113/58/1, 222/54/1-2; E159/220, recorda Hil. rot. 12. These offices necessitated extensive travel, both within the south-west and across the south of England to Westminster, but the central focus of Giffard’s life nevertheless appears to have remained in the Barnstaple region, where he served as deputy butler from November 1438 and towards the end of his life was appointed the King’s steward.18 CPR, 1436-41, p. 222; KB9/256/47.

Giffard’s relations with his neighbours were not always of a cordial nature. On frequent occasions he can be found squabbling with the merchants of Barnstaple and other local men over debts. No details of the background to bonds for £12 made to Giffard by Thomas Rescruk* and Richard Cheket of Callington in February 1438 have been discovered, but there were also more serious instances of discord.19 CCR, 1435-41, p. 169; CP40/695, rot. 69; 720, rot. 260d; 734, rots. 37d, 191d; 740, rot. 311. By the spring of 1444 Giffard had taken a kinswoman, Joan, daughter and heiress of William Forde, and the girl’s widowed mother Isabel into his household. On 3 May that year a group of rioters led by Richard Morton, a Cornish gentleman, entered the parish church of Parkham, where Joan was hearing mass in the company of Giffard’s wife, Wilhelma. With scant regard for their surroundings the assailants set upon the women, who fled into the porch of the church for safety. This only proved a temporary remedy, for without hesitation Morton and his men broke down the locked door of the porch, assaulted and wounded Wilhelma Giffard, and dragged Joan away. When the local esquire John Coffyn sought to intervene, they struck him over the head with their swords. Later on the same day they also attacked and abducted Isabel Forde. On Giffard’s complaint, a high-powered commission of inquiry headed by Sir William Bourgchier (the later Lord Fitzwaryn) and Sir William Bonville*, was appointed to bring the felons to justice, and as a result of their inquiries Morton and his associates were bound over in £500 to abide by the arbitration of Alexander Hody*. Some of the lesser offenders were subsequently brought to trial, only to be acquitted by a local jury at the Cornish assizes.20 CPR, 1441-6, p. 288; CCR, 1441-7, p. 231; KB9/246/13-14; KB27/735, rex rot. 5. Nor, however, was this the end of Giffard’s troubles, for Isabel Forde appears to have been complicit in the offence and after her return to the Giffard household she caused further problems. Before long, Giffard was approached by a potential suitor, one William Gyrnon, who promised to pay him 100s. and to settle an annuity of 26s. 8d. on him if he would use his influence to persuade Isabel to marry him. This Giffard did, but no sooner had the match been solemnized than Gyrnon forgot his promise, and, when reminded of it by Giffard, refused to make any of the promised payments. This, so Giffard complained to the chancellor with some indignation at such ingratitude, was in no small part a result of ‘the sterynge of the forseyde Isabell’.21 C1/16/311.

Potentially even more serious was Giffard’s clash with Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, around the same time. On this occasion, it was Giffard who was said to have illicitly seized John Speccote, an heir whose wardship was claimed by the earl. In view of Giffard’s earlier association with Thomas, the brother of Sir William Bonville, it is tempting to speculate whether the increasingly acrimonious quarrel between the earl and the Bonvilles played a part in the affair, but no further evidence to support such an hypothesis has come to light.22 KB27/736, rot. 74d; 742, rot. 63; 746, rot. 136d; M. Cherry, ‘Crown and Political Community, Devon’ (Univ. of Wales, Swansea, Ph.D. thesis, 1981), 280.

Unquestionably, many of the offices held by Giffard could be potentially lucrative. Thus, in January 1440 the burgesses of Exeter paid him as much as 20s. to expedite the return of a writ, and were further prepared to seal a bond indemnifying him from any resultant litigation.23 Exeter receiver’s acct. 18-19 Hen VI, m. 3; A.P.M. Wright, ‘Relations between the King’s Govt. and Bors.’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1965), 153. Giffard’s long professional career allowed him to gain substantial wealth and consequently also sufficient status to be appointed to the office of escheator of Devon and Cornwall towards the end of his life, even though the office was normally the preserve of a more substantial class of gentry than the one which filled the under shrievalty. The post was a demanding one, and among perhaps the most taxing tasks faced by Giffard during this final spell in the Crown’s service was the assignment of dower to no less a lady than the dowager duchess of Exeter, widow of his own feudal overlord.24 CCR, 1454-61, p. 403; E159/224, brevia Trin. rot. 6; E153/675. Although still a relatively young man, Giffard died on St. George’s Day 1448, less than half a year after his discharge from the escheatry. He was survived by his widow, Wilhelma, who became one of his executors, and his 14-year-old son, John, who before long married Elizabeth, one of the grandchildren and ultimate heirs of John Mules*.25 CFR, xviii. 75; xix.79; CCR, 1447-54, pp. 208-9; C139/115/32, 147/30. In Nov. 1443 Thomas Giffard had served as a mainpernor for Otis Gilbert, father to another of the Mules coheirs, when he was granted custody of the Mules inheritance during the heirs’ minority: CFR, xvii. 281; CP40/752, rot. 331. Thomas’s other executors were his kinsman John Giffard of Yeo, the parson John Knight (probably a relation of his wife) and the lawyers John More and Baldwin Vyell.26 CP40/752, rot. 268; 758, rots. 251, 279.