HALL, William

Identification of this MP presents difficulties because of his very common name. However, one important namesake may be eliminated quite easily: the MP was clearly not the William Hall who became a serjeant-at-law in 1425, not only because men of this rank in the legal profession did not normally sit in the Commons, but because the serjeant, who lived at Chiselborough in Somerset, died in 1431.2 CCR, 1422-9, p. 163; CIPM, xxiii. 614; Order of Serjts. at Law (Selden Soc. supp. ser. v), 161, 260, 515. For the serjeant’s residence at Chiselborough, see Reg. Stafford, i (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxi), 91. The serjeant was attorney-general of the earl of Huntingdon (CCR, 1422-9, pp. 163, 270), active on behalf of the Arundells of Cornw. (E159/206, recorda, Easter rot. 3d); feoffee for Elizabeth, Lady Botreaux (CPR, 1422-9, p. 462); and executor of Thomas Pever† of Beds. (Reg. Chichele, ii. 418-19; CCR, 1429-35, pp. 6, 7). Yet it may be the case that the MP was the lawyer’s kinsman,3 Although he was clearly not the serjeant’s 16-year-old son and heir: CIPM, xxiii. 614. even though the evidence is circumstantial. On the serjeant’s death the wardship of his manor of Chiselborough was acquired by John Stafford, bishop of Bath and Wells,4 CFR, xvi. 3, 92. whose personal retainers included another William Hall. This William remained in Stafford’s service throughout his episcopate (1424-43), and primacy as archbishop of Canterbury (1443-52), a period which encompassed Stafford’s many years as chancellor of England (1432-50). The chancellor’s servant is a strong candidate for Membership of the Commons.

How this William Hall first came to the attention of the future bishop is unclear, but, being perhaps an Oxfordshire man by origin, this may have happened while Stafford was studying at Oxford university. The two men were linked from the very beginning of Henry VI’s reign in 1422 until Stafford’s death 30 years later, the first record of their association dating from November 1422 when they conveyed to Thomas Stonor I* property in the town of Westminster which they held by grant of Stonor’s former guardian Thomas Chaucer* and others.5 CCR, 1422-9, p. 42. It is worthy of note that the principal figures in this transaction all came from Oxfordshire too. At that time Stafford, as keeper of the privy seal, had just assumed what was to be a pivotal role at the centre of government in the Council of the infant King. Thereafter, Hall was to be always at hand to assist him in his own, more private affairs. Thus, a few years later he joined Stafford as a feoffee of estates in Dorset belonging to the bishop’s half-brother the wealthy Sir Humphrey Stafford* of Hooke.6 CPR, 1422-9, p. 541. Perhaps through his contacts at court the bishop helped his servant to secure the office of ranger of Wychwood forest, a post in the gift of Henry IV’s widow Queen Joan, although Hall surrendered it in November 1432.7 CPR, 1429-36, p. 244. Stafford rewarded him directly in September 1433 with a grant of property in the manor of Banwell in Somerset.8 Initially he was to hold it in survivorship with Nicholas and Joan Catour, to whom Bishop Ergum had granted it for life: Reg. Stafford, i (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxi), 151. In the following year Hall was made a trustee of Stafford’s estates in Kings Somborne, Hampshire, a role that he was to fill until after his lord’s death in May 1452. He subsequently transferred seisin to his fellow Stafford retainer John Audley*, and formally relinquished his title in November 1454 so that the lands might pass to Bishop William Waynflete of Winchester for the endowment of Magdalen College.9 Magdalen Coll. Oxf., Somborne Regis deeds, A1, 3, 9, 48. With regard to other Stafford estates of which he was a feoffee, Hall’s fiduciary interest lasted from 1443 until 1452, when he similarly relinquished possession to Audley; in that case a final release was made to Waynflete in November 1455.10 Ibid., Enham deeds, B93, 191, 201, 203, 215, 219, 224.

Hall’s elections to Parliament for the Wiltshire borough of Great Bedwyn in 1435 and 1442 took place while his patron Bishop Stafford was chancellor, although there is no way of knowing if the initiative came from the latter, and whether Hall’s name was inserted on the Wiltshire return only when it reached the Chancery. The borough pertained to Humphrey, earl of Stafford, the bishop’s distant kinsman. Pertinently, Hall was not resident at Bedwyn, or indeed anywhere in the county: his usual place of residence was at Swinbrook in Oxfordshire. Although most often styled ‘gentleman’,11 CFR, xvii. 126. he was described as ‘of Oxfordshire, yeoman’ when he appeared in the Exchequer on 28 Nov. 1436 to stand surety for Bishop Stafford’s farm of the Berkshire manor of Swallowfield. This was in association with John Basket*, one of the bishop’s more prominent retainers,12 CFR, xvi. 306. who came forward to offer securities when Hall himself was given a seven-year lease of the King’s fair of ‘Southecroke’ in North Wales in February 1437. Together the two of them, Hall and Basket, obtained in July following keeping of the valuable lordship, manor and hundred of Odiham in Hampshire. For unexplained reasons, Hall relinquished his interest in both leases before the end of their terms,13 CFR, xvi. 318, 344; CPR, 1441-6, p. 63. and twice, in December 1440 and April 1441, he sued out letters patent exempting him for life from being put on assizes and juries against his will. The description as ‘of Kensington, Middlesex’ then given to him, indicates that the chancellor’s man had found a dwelling place more convenient for his duties at Westminster and employment about Stafford’s affairs.14 CPR, 1436-41, pp. 486, 518. He and Basket sat together in the Commons of 1442, although the latter held a higher status in the House, as a knight of the shire for Surrey. The colleagues were pardoned together with Archbishop Stafford on 13 Jan. 1445, in relation to the debts to the Crown arising from their lord’s tenancy of Swallowfield.15 CPR, 1441-6, p. 320.

Hall’s return for the Dorset borough of Weymouth to the Parliament of 1450 came in the autumn of a troubled year that had seen Stafford’s resignation from the chancellorship, the fall and murder of the King’s chief minister the duke of Suffolk and the tumult of Cade’s rebellion. As had been the case with Great Bedwyn, he had no recorded links with the borough which returned him; and as before he may have been representing the interests of Stafford rather than those of the burgesses. After the archbishop’s death in 1452 Hall helped to tidy up his affairs, notably by the conveyance of some of his lands in Hampshire and London, matters which preoccupied him for at least three years.16 CCR, 1454-61, pp. 67, 102-3. A suit for a debt of £38 brought against him in the court of common pleas in 1454, which referred to him as ‘of Swinbrook’ and ‘dwelling with the King’s chancellor’, may indicate a continuing link with royal officials at Westminster, as does the last known record of him, in June 1456, when he made a ‘gift’ of his goods and chattels to two masters of Chancery.17 CCR, 1454-61, p. 137.