BROWN, Sampson

Brown, a lawyer and ‘gentleman’, was an associate of one of the most prominent members of his profession living in Dorset – John Newburgh II*. It seems likely that he was trained in the law by Newburgh, and for some time he lived in Newburgh’s household at Lulworth in the east of the county. When first recorded, in November 1445, it was as a party to a final concord whereby his highly acquisitive mentor obtained a reversionary interest in the manor of Blakemore.1 Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x), 364-5. At the elections held at Dorchester on 27 Jan. 1449, Brown appeared as a mainpernor for the knights of the shire, of whom Newburgh was one,2 C219/15/6. and he himself was returned for the borough of Shaftesbury, even though he is not known to have had any links with the town or its inhabitants. Perhaps his election was engineered by Newburgh, who may himself have sat for Shaftesbury in an earlier Parliament. While the Parliament of February 1449 was in progress Brown was recorded in the court of common pleas as a feoffee of the Wiltshire manor of Ferne by Berwick St. John.3 Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), no. 592. Hilary term 1450 saw him once more acting on behalf of the Newburgh family in transactions regarding land in Dorset, and in December that year, as ‘of East Lulworth’, he provided securities for John Newburgh at the Exchequer.4 Dorset Feet of Fines, 371; CFR, xviii. 181.

On occasion, during the 1450s Brown appeared as an attorney in the court of common pleas,5 CP40/773, att. rot. 2. and employment as one of the officers for the sheriff of Somerset and Dorset also took him to the central courts. Thus, he was responsible for paying annuities due from the issues of those counties during the shrievalty of John Willoughby† in 1455-6, and he later assisted Willoughby in bringing suits against his debtors.6 E207/17/3; CP40/786, rots. 43d, 46. More unexpected was Brown’s appearance at the receipt of the Exchequer in June 1458, there receiving reassignments of tallies on behalf of the earl of Oxford and his colleagues as former keepers of the seas.7 E403/814, m. 6. He once more acted on behalf of the Newburghs in 1459, in transactions concerning the manor of Turner’s Puddle, which John Newburgh acquired for his younger son.8 Dorset Feet of Fines, 386-7. Significantly, although neither Newburgh nor Brown had sat in Parliament since 1449, both were elected again in 1460, with Newburgh once more representing the county and Brown this time accompanying him to Westminster as a representative for Melcombe Regis. There is no evidence to show that they had sought election because of the change of regime following the Yorkist victory at Northampton, but it is worthy of remark that four more of Newburgh’s intimates joined them in the Commons as representatives of Dorset boroughs.

Of Brown’s private affairs very little is known, although he may be presumed to have been a relation of John Parentild alias Mayhewe, one of the chaplains in the King’s household, who in his will of August 1459 left him his house in Wareham together with all his paternal inheritance at Stoborough outside the town and the residue of his goods. Brown was Parentild’s executor.9 PCC 18 Stokton (PROB11/4, f. 133v). In July 1456 he had obtained at the Exchequer a 20-year lease of a messuage and land in East Purbeck, for which he was to pay 21s. p.a. That this lease was confirmed in February 1462 for a period of 100 years suggests that he had contact with someone of influence with the new regime under Edward IV.10 CFR, xix. 164; xx. 51. Brown appeared in the King’s bench as attorney for the abbot of Abbotsbury in the following Easter term, but is not recorded alive thereafter. At an unknown date after 1458 he had been enfeoffed with Newburgh of the principal estates of the Turberville family. He died before April 1476 when further transactions relating to these holdings were completed.11 KB27/804, rot. 32; CCR, 1476-85, no. 140.