PIERSON, Hugh

Given that this MP sat in the politically partisan Parliament that attainted Richard, duke of York, and his leading allies, it seems reasonable to assume that he was the ‘Hugh Persone’ who was a parker at Devizes for Henry VI’s queen. The King had granted the castle and lordship of Devizes to Queen Margaret immediately after the death of the previous lord, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, in 1447, but Persone was not her first parker, since John Dyer held the office in 1448-9. An inquisition held by Sir Roger Tocotes† and other commissioners in June 1461 indicates that Persone was removed from the parkership at the accession of Edward IV. The task of Tocotes and his associates was to investigate wastes and other misdoings committed on the lordship, now in the hands of the Yorkist Crown. One of a series held by the commissioners, the inquisition refers to Persone as ‘late parker’ although it also shows that he still held the office as late as December 1460. The jury found that he had made various assignments of parkland and sales of underwood in that month, and that he had transacted other such sales on ‘divers’ other occasions. The inquisition also refers to him as ‘late of Devizes, yeoman’, but this does not necessarily prove that he had a connexion with Devizes or Wiltshire before becoming parker. There is certainly no evidence that Pierson was linked with Cricklade before 1459, and possibly he was not the free choice of the electors because the names of him and his fellow MP, William Clement*, were entered over an erasure on the election return. Like Pierson, Clement was associated with the Lancastrian dynasty, since he had held the office of groom of Henry VI’s chamber, although it is not clear whether he was still in royal service in 1459.2 VCH Wilts. x. 242, 246n; CIMisc. viii. 259; C219/16/5. There is no evidence to link Pierson with the ‘Hugh Peresone’ who held property at Hungerford, Berks. in the early 1460s: DL43/1/4.