CRICKLADE, Robert

The eldest surviving son of an upwardly mobile Wiltshire gentleman, Robert Cricklade saw his expectations gradually increase during his youth, as his mother’s propertied relatives, the Walshes and Studleys, died one by one. Even in his parents’ lifetime, in 1434, Robert (along with his father and putative brother William) was deemed of sufficient social importance to be included among the Wiltshire men required to take the general oath against maintenance.3 CPR, 1429-36, p. 371. It is probable that he owed this status at least partially to his professional practice of the law. By the 1420s he was accredited as an attorney in the Westminster common law courts, and if a majority of his clients were of modest status, they were nevertheless sufficiently numerous to provide him with a substantial income. In addition, the latter part of his career saw him employed with increasing frequency by individuals of greater substance, such as the abbot of Stanley and the Beauchamps of Steeple Lavington.4 CFR, xv. 131; CCR, 1441-7, p. 84; CP40/647, att. rot. 1; 652, att. rot. 4; 657, rot. 373; 661, att. rot. 4; 666, att. rot. 1; 680, rots. 128, 243, 245d; 693, att. rot. 1; 698, rots. 264d, 308d; 700, rots. 120, 331; 705, att. rot. 1; 713, att. rot. 1; 715, rots. 436d, 620d, 658, att. rot. 8; 718, att. rot. 8; 719, att. rot. 1; 723, att. rot. 2d; 742, att. rot. 1; KB27/722, att. rot. 1; Northants. RO, Westmorland of Apethorpe mss, W(A) box 2/parcel III/no. 3/c; parcel VII/no. 2/b2, b7; Corp. London RO, Bridge House mss, CLA/007/EM/02/H/078. Equally, it is probable that Cricklade, who is not otherwise known to have held public office, owed his impressive parliamentary career to a combination of professional renown and of his family’s local standing. In five out of his eight Parliaments, his colleague was either his father or his putative brother, while the remainder saw local men of law like John Giles* or John Justice* returned alongside him. Such, indeed, was the dominance of the Cricklades in the parliamentary representation of Calne and Cricklade in the 1420s and 1430s, that in 1431 Robert was returned by both boroughs, one of the remaining seats being taken by William.

The estates that Cricklade stood to inherit from his mother were heavily ring-fenced by entails and in parts burdened by a variety of life interests, so it must have been apparent at an early date that their acquisition would be anything other than straightforward. Nevertheless, in the 1430s Robert’s expectations began to become a reality, and he may even have done his part to precipitate matters. On 6 Feb. 1438 his mother’s last surviving brother, Walter Studley*, was murdered at Cadnam in Chippenham hundred by a Gloucestershire blacksmith, on the orders, as was later claimed, of Joan, the wife of John Hodgkins alias Ferrour of Chippenham. While there is no conclusive evidence to tie Robert to the murder, it is curious to find not only him, but also his kinsman Nicholas Cricklade standing bail for Joan after she surrendered to the Marshalsea in early 1440.5 KB27/715, rex rot. 1. The Studley lands now fell to Cricklade’s mother and within a short time he was also attempting to secure his title to her Walsh inheritance. Thus, in about 1442 he petitioned the chancellor, Archbishop Stafford, for redress against the Welsh esquire Walter Moreton, a one-time constable of Cardiff castle, who possessed a life interest in the Glamorganshire manor of Landough from his marriage to Cricklade’s distant cousin Gwenllian Walsh.6 Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxiv. 389-90; Genealogist, n.s. xiii. 148.

Although the extent of Cricklade’s professional activity in the law courts frequently detained him at Westminster, he maintained close connexions in his native Calne, and in July 1446 he and his brother John were among the townsmen and other benefactors for whom prayers were to be said in the new chantry founded at the altar of St. Mary Magdalen and St. Nicholas in the parish church of St. Mary by John St. Loe*, an esquire for the King’s body.7 CPR, 1441-6, p. 459. These prayers were to be called for sooner than Cricklade might have expected. Although the exact date of his death has not been established, it seems that he never came into his inheritance. He was certainly survived by his widowed mother, and may even have died in his own father’s lifetime. Certainly, he disappears from the ranks of the Westminster attorneys not long after the chantry’s foundation. At his death, Cricklade left an infant son, John, much of whose life was overshadowed by an acrimonious dispute with his uncle and namesake, who sought to deprive him of his inheritance, and – so John believed – possibly even of his life. Cricklade’s ageing mother now resigned her claim to her Welsh lands to the powerful future earl of Pembroke, Sir William Herbert*, while quarrels over the remainder of her inheritance were to keep the Westminster courts busy for several years.8 Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxiv. 390-413.