NETHERTON, John

Netherton’s parentage is obscure, but he may have been related to Thomas Netherton, an Exeter citizen who served as alderman outside the north gate between 1425 and 1431, and again in 1441-2.6 Devon RO, Exeter city recs., mayors’ ct. rolls 4-10, 20-21 Hen. VI. It seems that he received some legal training, and had established connexions among leading lawyers in the south-west by 1451, when he was named alongside William Boef* and John Radford* as a feoffee of property belonging to the recorder of Exeter, John’s kinsman Nicholas Radford*.7 Devon RO, Shelley of Shobrooke mss, Z1/27/1/11. Netherton was named last among the feoffees, and it was probably he who, styled a mere ‘yeoman of Exeter’, procured a royal pardon in January 1458.8 C67/42, m. 34. If so, he was soon to grow in prominence. At the summer assizes of 1459 it fell to the feoffees, headed by William, Lord Bonville*, the one-time patron of the murdered recorder, to defend John Radford’s title,9 JUST1/199/14; CP40/803, rot. 112. and that autumn Netherton was admitted to the freedom of Exeter. It is probable that – like some other Exeter MPs of the period – he owed the honour to his agreement to represent the city in the contentious Coventry Parliament for the negligible sum of 20s. in lieu of wages,10 Exeter Freemen ed. Rowe and Jackson, 54; Exeter receiver’s acct. 1-2 Edw. IV, m. 1d. for on his return from the Parliament he did not begin to play a part in civic government for several years. Even when he did so, in the autumn of 1467, he merely participated in the elections of the mayor and senior city officers on a single occasion, without himself taking office other than a brief spell of just over a year as one of the constables of the Exeter staple in 1469-70.11 Exeter mayor’s ct. roll 7-8 Edw. IV, rot. 1d.

Instead, Netherton built a career in the service of the regional gentry, particularly the members of the late Lord Bonville’s circle, to whose attention he had perhaps come as one of the Radford feoffees. By the autumn of 1462 he was serving as bailiff of one of the central Devon manors of Bonville’s close associate (Sir) Philip Courtenay of Powderham, who before his death in the following year apparently also entrusted him with the custody of much of his estate archive (as Courtenay’s heir would later complain to the chancellor),12 C1/56/221. and in 1466-7 he was employed as under sheriff of Devon by William Denys*, whose daughter had married Bonville’s bastard son, John. While still serving in this post, he secured the office of feodary in Devon of the royal duchy of Lancaster, but it is unclear to what connexion he owed this appointment.

As Netherton grew in importance, so he increasingly came into conflict with his neighbours. In 1463 he claimed to have been assaulted, robbed and imprisoned by a group of Exeter men led by Thomas Calwodlegh*,13 CP40/808, rot. 259. while not long after one John Bydecomb complained that Netherton had abducted his stepson, John Hall, and had used the five-year-old’s status as executor of his father, Richard Hall of North Bovy, to begin a series of law suits against Bydecomb in the Exeter courts.14 C1/45/123. This, so Bydecomb claimed, he had been able to do because of the support of the mayor and bailiffs of Exeter. Netherton did indeed enjoy the favour of the citizens, who not only returned him to represent them in the Parliament summoned to York during Edward IV’s captivity in the earl of Warwick’s hands in the summer of 1469, but even agreed to allow him 5s. 4d. for his expenses in riding to York, even though in the event Parliament failed to meet (his colleague John Orenge† was, however, paid almost twice that amount).15 Exeter receiver’s acct. 8-9 Edw. IV, m. 1d.

Netherton’s primary loyalties nevertheless remained with the Courtenays of Powderham. In August 1467, Edward IV had granted the Devon manor of Kenne, part of the forfeited estates of the attainted earls of Devon, to his kinsman Sir John Bourgchier, despite the fact that some two years earlier he had confirmed the youngest of the Courtenays of Powderham, John Courtenay† in his possession of the manor. In response, Netherton and his two putative sons, John junior and Henry, with a band of armed retainers held Kenne against Bourgchier, who retaliated with litigation in the court of King’s bench, as well as a petition to the King’s council. This proved to be of little avail, as the Nethertons simply ignored the privy seal writs summoning them to Westminster. A renewed complaint to the chancellor produced instructions for their arrest, but it is unlikely these were ever carried out, for within a few weeks of their issue, Exeter and its hinterland were in turmoil.16 C1/38/12; CPR, 1461-7, pp. 85, 148, 424; 1467-77, p. 51; KB27/832, rot. 17d; CCR, 1468-76, no. 424.

Throughout much of 1469, the earl of Warwick together with his cousin, Edward IV’s brother, the duke of Clarence, had been plotting against the King. Risings in the north orchestrated by Warwick had provided the pretext for the murder of several of the King’s favourites and had allowed Warwick to take the monarch himself into his custody. In September 1469, Edward IV had regained his liberty, but had in the first instance sought to rebuild relations with his disgruntled kinsmen. By the spring of 1470, it became apparent that he had failed, as the complicity of Warwick and Clarence in fresh popular unrest in the north became apparent. Moreover, a separate uprising was now staged in Devon by various Courtenay cadets who had been drawn into Clarence’s orbit. On 16 Mar. Edward IV, preoccupied by the rising in Lincolnshire, dispatched John, Lord Dynham, and Fulk Bourgchier, Lord Fitzwaryn, to Exeter to arrest Sir Hugh Courtenay* of Boconnoc, his cousins (Sir) William*, Peter, Philip†, Humphrey and Walter Courtenay† of the Powderham line, along with several of their supporters, Netherton among them. The two lords reached Exeter, but within days of their arrival found themselves besieged in the city by the Courtenays. On 3 Apr. Warwick and Clarence arrived and raised the siege, but the King was hot on their heels and within a few days they were forced to set sail to seek refuge in France.17 CPR, 1467-77, p. 217; H. Kleineke, Edw. IV, 103-5; idem, ‘Exeter in the Wars of the Roses’, in The Fifteenth Cent. VII ed. Clark, 143-4. Netherton’s subsequent whereabouts are uncertain. He was removed from office as constable of the Exeter staple on 4 May, and may have been dismissed from his duchy of Lancaster post not long after.18 On 7 July 1471 the office of duchy feodary was granted jointly to Thomas Calwodelegh and John Wynell, but on 25 Aug. it was Thomas Dukmanton† (rather than Netherton, who had replaced him in 1467) who was ordered to surrender the office. It is possible that Dukmanton resumed office either at the time of the siege of Exeter or during the Readeption, but no patent of appointment is known: Somerville, i. 634-5. Likewise, no evidence of his movements during Henry VI’s Readeption has come to light, but it is probable that like his Courtenay masters he followed Clarence back to King Edward’s side in early 1471. His later activities are difficult to distinguish from those of a younger namesake, probably his son, but it must have been he whom (Sir) William Courtenay sued for the return of his father’s property deeds in the second half of the 1470s,19 C1/56/221. and it likely that it was also the elder man who by 1476 had been appointed Crown bailiff of the Devon hundred of North Tawton. Equally, he was probably the John Netherton who in January 1477 was among the jurors taking the inquisition after the death of Elizabeth, widow of (Sir) Philip Courtenay of Powderham, as well as serving on similar juries on several occasions in 1481 and 1482.20 C140/59/77; 79/1; 80/40; 84/32.

Netherton’s probable younger son, Henry, who in the course of the crisis of 1470-1 had been sent to Leicester by the citizens of Exeter to gain a clearer picture of the dramatic developments, followed his putative father into Courtenay service, and held office as bailiff of that family’s hundred on Wonford in the 1490s.21 Exeter receiver’s acct. 10-11 Edw. IV; SC6/HenVII/1096, rot. 21.