TODD, Robert

The identification of the man (or men) who represented Melcombe Regis in 1447 and Calne in November 1449 presents problems. No Robert Todd has been found in the scanty records of either of the two boroughs, and the MP for Calne certainly seems to have been a stranger, for his name was inserted into the sheriff’s return over an erasure. Both of the Parliaments were controversial assemblies: the first saw the arrest of the King’s uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, while the other witnessed the Commons’ attack on his leading minister, William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk. It is therefore tempting to speculate that Todd owed his two elections to a connexion with the royal household or to aristocratic patronage, but no evidence in support of either hypothesis has been discovered.

Of the several contemporary Robert Todds, perhaps the most likely candidate for identification with the MP is the Southampton merchant who in the 1440s traded in imported fruit and almonds which he sent to Salisbury, and may later have dealt in cloth in the city of London.1 Overseas Trade (London Rec. Soc. xxvii), no. 224.