WESTON, William II

The identification of the man who represented two Wiltshire boroughs in the Parliaments of 1449 presents some problems. Although there were several Weston families in the county, William cannot be placed in any of them with any degree of certainty.1 The statement in HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 939, that Thomas Weston (d.1423) of Cricklade was succeeded by a son called William is spurious. In fact, Thomas appears to have died childless, and his heir was his niece Katherine, the wife of John Wotton*: CIPM, xxii. 254. On chronological grounds, it is very unlikely that the MP was the man from Melksham, who had served as a Wiltshire tax collector in 1413.2 CFR, xiv. 26; CPR, 1441-6, p. 263; Northants. RO, Westmorland of Apethorpe mss, W(A) box 2/parcel V/no. 3/B5; parcel VII/no. 2/C12. More plausible is the speculation that he was the William Weston who served Thomas Hungerford*, titular Lord Hungerford and Moleyns, as an attorney to deliver seisin in the summer of 1465. If so, it might be the case that he had previously been in the service of Hungerford’s grandfather, Robert, 2nd Lord Hungerford, and had been returned for two Wiltshire boroughs in the Hungerford interest.3 Som. Archs., Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. mss, DD\SAS\C/795/FR/56.