BURGHILL, Thomas

Given this MP’s unusual surname, it is quite possible that he was related to John Burghill, the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield from 1398 to 1415, and came from the Herefordshire family of this name.3 CPR, 1446-52, p. 179. For the Burghills of Hereford in the later 15th cent. see also C1/121/40, 281/39, although any relationship to the brothers John and Richard Burghill of Hereford, and to John’s son William, who died in 1502 when coroner of Herefs., remains unproven: CFR, xxii. no. 751; C242/14/23. There is no doubt that early in his career he was well known to people from that county and the west Midlands. When, in February 1443, he acquired from Robert Dingley† lands, rents and services in Surrey, at East Sheen, ‘Westhalle’ and Mortlake, the witnesses to the transaction included Thomas Fitzharry* of Herefordshire, and two prominent figures from Worcestershire, John Throckmorton I* and John Vampage*. Other dealings of the same date concerned property nearby at Wimbledon and Putney which Thomas Burghill had once held along with his kinsman William and others in a group headed by Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. Throckmorton, Vampage and other of the parties had been engaged in the earl’s service until his death in 1439,4 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 129, 131, 134-5. so it is a reasonable conjecture that in his youth our MP had also belonged to the earl’s circle.

From the early 1440s Burghill’s activities were focused on Surrey where his landed acquisitions were concentrated. There, he was a feoffee of a tenement in Southwark, called the ‘Wyldys’.5 C1/41/137. Through his marriage he also held property across the river in the city of London. His father-in-law, John Fakenham, had been retained as an esquire by Richard II, who granted him for life holdings in London worth ten marks a year. Instead of reverting to the Crown on Fakenham’s death, these premises had been kept by the deceased’s daughter Anne and her successive husbands, the grocer Richard Frank and Burghill. By the time official inquiries were conducted in September 1443 Anne too had died, but Burghill, described as a ‘gentleman’, was still occupying the property.6 E199/27/22.

In May 1444 Burghill appeared in the Exchequer as a mainpernor for the newly-appointed alnagers in Shropshire, one of whom was Richard Bullesdon, for whom he was to act similarly on a later occasion.7 CFR, xvii. 280; xviii. 50. Around this time, and by unknown means, he made the acquaintance of John Hampton II*, the influential esquire for the King’s body, who was prepared to offer him patronage. In May 1445 Hampton obtained King Henry’s assent, authorized by his sign manual, to Burghill’s petition for the office of collector of rents at Calais, and he wrote personally to the keeper of the privy seal in support of the appointment. Hampton noted that the treasurer of Calais was seeking to promote a man ‘of his own’ to the office, despite promising that Hampton’s ‘welbeloved’ Burghill should have it.8 E28/75/60, 61. Despite Hampton’s support no record of Burghill’s appointment has been found, and it seems likely that the post remained in the keeping of William Stokes, who had been given it under the seal of Calais on the previous 31 Mar.9 Stokes does not appear to have surrendered his patent into the exchequer of Calais until shortly before 4 Nov. 1457: CPR, 1452-61, p. 385.

Burghill’s election to the Parliament of 1450 for Old Sarum in Wiltshire may similarly have been owed to patronage at the centre of government (although the evidence is lacking). It cannot be explained in terms of connexion with the borough, or indeed with the county. There are clear signs that the schedule listing the names of the representatives of the Wiltshire boroughs was tampered with, notably in regard to the return of Burghill’s companion John Yelverton* (son of Judge William Yelverton*), whose name had originally been put down for Ludgershall but had been erased and that of Thomas Thorpe*, the treasurer’s remembrancer, inserted in its place. The tampering probably took place after the return reached the Chancery. Like Yelverton, who lived in Norfolk, Burghill was clearly an outsider to the constituency. Of their activities in the Commons nothing is recorded, but shortly after the Parliament ended, on 9 June 1451, Burghill appeared at the Exchequer to stand surety for Thomas Fitzharry, his old associate from Herefordshire, who had sat in the House as a shire knight.10 CFR, xviii. 204. Once again attempting to secure appointment to a lucrative royal office, he proved successful on 8 Apr. 1454, when he acquired a patent to be controller of customs in Bristol. Yet he was soon to be disappointed again, as the previous incumbent, Richard Alberton, was reinstated at the end of May.11 CPR, 1452-61, p. 146.

Burghill is not recorded thereafter. He may have been related to Maurice Burghill, a ‘gentleman’ or ‘esquire’ of Holt in Worcestershire,12 CFR, xviii. 244. who entered the service of Edward IV and in March 1464 together with Master William Hatcliffe, the King’s physician, was given the office of the exchange within the town of Calais and also put in charge of foreign exchange in England for a term of ten years. Maurice, who thus, by contrast with our MP, successfully obtained a post in Calais, was like him linked with an earl of Warwick, in his case Richard Neville.13 CPR, 1461-7, p. 323; CCR, 1461-8, p. 382.

The subsequent descent of the Surrey property which Thomas Burghill acquired in 1443 was not straightforward, although it is known to have fallen to Nicholas Gaynesford*, who in the summer of 1473 sold the manors of East Sheen and Westhall, together with holdings in Mortlake, Wimbledon and Putney, to a London haberdasher.14 CP25(1)/232/76/1.