CROWCHER, John

This MP’s name was a common one in west Sussex in the first half of the fifteenth century. For instance, a John Crowcher ‘the younger’ was among the retainers of Sir John Bohun, lord of the borough of Midhurst, who were indicted in 1402 for aiding and abetting their master in the murder of a servant of William Baggele†; and a namesake who lived at Seaford was among those charged with trespass by the abbot of Robertsbridge five years later. Members of a Crowcher family, including one named John, were tenants of Sir Thomas Lewknor* on the former Hoo estate at Wartling in 1428.1 Suss. Arch. Collns. xcv. 51; CCR, 1405-9, p. 295; Feudal Aids, v. 149.

It seems likely, however, that the MP was descended from the family of this name which had lived in Arundel in Edward III’s reign;2 Bodl. Ch. Suss. Arundel, 64. and he may have been related to the namesake who appeared in the court of common pleas in person in 1419 to sue a parker from nearby Tortington for the theft of a cow. Described as a ‘woolman of Arundel’ he himself was a defendant in the same court in the Michaelmas term of 1439 in a plea for a debt of £25 owing to Henry Exton.3 CP40/635, rot. 486; 715, rot. 265. This was ten years before Crowcher’s election to Parliament. Whether he ever held office in the borough he represented is not recorded, although he was named among the burgesses of Arundel who together with the mayor Thomas Esshing* authorized the collection of a local subsidy to pay for urgently-needed repairs to the causeway and bridge in November 1454.4 Bodl. Ch. Suss. a. 2, no. 72.