PITT, Richard

It is impossible to be sure of the identity of the ‘Richard Pyt’ who was returned for Lostwithiel to the second Parliament of 1449, for his name was entered into the schedule accompanying the sheriff’s indenture for Cornwall over an erasure. Moreover, the latter document, counter-sealed by the prominent courtier John Trevelyan* as sheriff, raises suspicions of electoral tampering, not only on account of the tense political situation which would ultimately come to a crisis in the impeachment and fall of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, but also in the light of the unusually small number of electors setting their seals to it. Among the ten men who did so apart from the county coroners, were the mayors of Launceston and Bodmin, but – perhaps significantly – not the mayor of Lostwithiel.8 C219/15/7.

If the MP of 1449 was indeed an outsider, the most likely candidate would appear to be a Northamptonshire lawyer of this name. This man, who hailed from Brigstock, was active in the court of common pleas by 1414, but nevertheless also maintained close ties in his native county, where he set his seal to the parliamentary election indenture in 1425. He served as one of the lesser clerks of the common bench (possibly as a secondary) between that date and 1466, and regularly acted as receiver of writs for the sheriffs of Northamptonshire in that court. In parallel, Pitt conducted an extensive private practice as an attorney in the Westminster courts.9 J.H. Baker, Men of Ct. (Selden Soc. supp. ser. xviii), ii. 1233; KB27/717, rot. 21; KB9/265/72; CP40/683, att. rot. 1; 699, att. rots. 5d, 7; 717, rot. 138; 739, rot. 270; 748, att. rot. 1; 771, att. rot. 6d; 773, att. rot. 5; 774, att. rot. 1; 778, rot. 410; CP25(1)/179/95/113. Among the most important of his clients were the dowager queen, Joan of Navarre,10 CP40/670, rot. 359; 686, rot. 115; 699, att. rot. 5d. Alice, countess of Oxford,11 CP40/632, rot. 418d. and Richard, duke of York.12 CP40/761, rot. 264, att. rot. 1; 775, rot. 672d. From Michaelmas 1423 he served as the bailiff of the liberty of Westminster abbey in his native county, and in 1427-8 he acted as Sir John Knyvet’s under sheriff of Northamptonshire and was subsequently charged by his master with rendering his account at the Exchequer.13 E5/483.

Rather less is known of Pitt’s personal affairs. In 1436 he was not deemed to hold enough property to qualify for the tax levied on incomes, although he and William Armeston met with the Northamptonshire commissioners in their capacity as feoffees of the lands of William Tyndale (who had made a distinguished marriage to the grand-daughter of Semontius, duke of Silesia).14 E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 14(xi)d; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 681. He did, however, own some property in Brigstock: in 1439 he was said to hold four ‘cossetull’ tofts and other land from the Crown at an annual rent of 8s., while in the autumn of 1441 he recovered four acres there from the former wife of John Toye.15 CIMisc. viii. 128; CP40/723, rot. 114d. At other times, he was pursuing debtors through the courts,16 CP40/670, rot. 200; 707, rot. 46d. but it was in the summer of 1455 at Knightsbridge in Middlesex that he fell victim to an assault by a yeoman from Hartlebury in Worcestershire.17 CP40/778, rot. 102d. There is no suggestion that the attack was politically motivated, and it is uncertain how Pitt came to be selected to fill one of the Lostwithiel seats in 1449, but in the light of his service to both the duke of York and the Cornish-born countess of Oxford, it is possible that his was a candidature that was deemed acceptable by both the court and the local electors.

At some stage in his career, Pitt established a close relationship with another Northamptonshire lawyer among the clerks of the common bench, Simon Burton of Bulwick, who later went on to join the ranks of the court’s filacers,18 CP40/787, rot. 481; 806, rot. 23; Baker, i. 405. and married Pitt’s only child, Agnes. Pitt survived until at least 1466.19 C67/45, m. 16; Baker, i. 405; SC2/194/70, rot. 7d.