PURY, John

Pury emerged from a modest background to take a place at Henry VI’s court, make the personal acquaintance of those closest to the King, and amass sufficient wealth to build himself a castle. Barfield, writing his history of Thatcham, was of the opinion that he came from an ‘old family who resided at Chippenham in Wiltshire’,13 S. Barfield, Thatcham, ed. Parker, i. 274-7. but this is not supported by the evidence, and given that Pury’s first return to Parliament was for the Dorset borough of Bridport, another case might be made that he was the man who was enfeoffed in 1427 by John Roger† of land at Pymore on the outskirts of that town, and in the 1430s was party to the marriage settlements made on Joan, daughter of the prominent local landowner Sir Thomas Brooke*.14 CCR, 1422-9, p. 319; Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x), 308-9, 318-19, 338, 357; CPR, 1441-6, p. 34. Heralds’ visitations produced much later identified his father as Thomas Pury, a household servant of Henry IV, and it may be pertinent to note that in his retirement Thomas held a corrody at the Dorset abbey of Abbotsbury, not far from Bridport.15 CCR, 1422-9, pp. 445, 448.

Whatever his antecedents, Pury initially made his mark in Middlesex, where he may have briefly acted as a receiver of revenues for the abbot of Westminster,16 C1/9/261. and gained his first experience of service as a j.p. It was there, too, that he began to invest in land, through dealings with the Shropshire peer Richard, Lord Strange of Knockin. In 1434 Lord Strange and his wife conveyed to him their manorial estates at Hillingdon, Colham and elsewhere, including the ‘old park’ and the office of warrener with its daily wage of 3d. To this they added three years later rents of as much as 60 marks a year.17 VCH Mdx. iv. 74; CP25(1)/152/90/64, 67; 91/76, 77; Harl. roll D22. How Pury had financed these acquisitions has yet to be explained. Nor is there an explanation as to how he amassed the lands in Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire which together with those in Middlesex were said by the assessors of the tax of 1436 to be worth £27 p.a.18 E179/238/90. It was in Berkshire that Pury decided to put down roots. In 1437 he acquired, again from Lord Strange, a lease of the manor of Streatley on the river Thames for an annual rent of £20 p.a., before buying it outright three years later, with the assistance of his brothers-in-law Sir John and George Lisle.19 CP25(1)/13/83/16, 20; VCH Berks. iii. 513; CCR, 1435-41, p. 359.

Pury’s ability to attract such a bride as Elizabeth Lisle, who belonged to a family of ancient lineage and high status, can only be attributed to early signals that he was destined to rise to prominence at Henry VI’s court. In 1439 her brother Sir John made a generous settlement on her and her husband, not only granting them his bailiwick of the Little Park at Crookham, but also transferring to them and their male issue the nearby manor of Chamberhouse in Thatcham, situated to the east of Newbury. Despite the entail, following Elizabeth’s death Pury kept Chamberhouse, which he held in jointure with his second wife, Isabel, by the terms of a final concord whereby Sir John relinquished his title to the manor along with eight messuages, a mill and some 700 acres of land. Pury made later additions to this estate, expanding it by a further 300 acres acquired from William de la Pole, by then marquess of Suffolk, in 1447.20 Chamberhouse recs., D/EZ 77/2/2, 3; 4/2; Harl. roll C11; VCH Berks. iii. 316-17; CP25(1)/13/84/28; 85/13; Barfield, i. 274-7. Subsequently, as ‘kinsman and heir of John atte More’, perhaps his uncle, Pury successfully proved his title to lands and tenements in Bray, on the Thames below Streatley, purchased property in nearby Maidenhead, and took possession of three-quarters of the manor of Horton down-river in Buckinghamshire.21 E210/4521; VCH Bucks. iii. 282-4; CCR, 1447-54, p. 302; 1461-7, pp. 410-11.

To judge from his rapid rise in the 1430s, Pury had the ability to attract powerful patrons. By 1439 he was on sufficiently cordial terms with Cardinal John Kemp, the archbishop of York, as to name him among the grantees of his goods and chattels, and Cardinal Beaufort and William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, were party to the settlements of Chamberhouse made in his favour three years later.22 CCR, 1435-41, p. 270; Chamberhouse recs. D/EZ 77/2/3. As a member of the staff of the royal household,23 At least from 1441: E409/9, f. 9; 11, 16; 410/6, f. 1, 3, f. 30. in the spring of 1442 he was trusted with the responsibility of looking after the ambassador sent to England by Jean, count of Armagnac, to negotiate a marriage between Henry VI and one of the count’s daughters. In constant attendance on the ambassador for 12 weeks (24 Apr. to 11 July), he escorted him to Plymouth for embarkation with Bishop Bekynton, and then visited (Sir) Philip Courtenay* at Powderham before reporting back to the King at Windsor. From there he rode to the Council in London to declare ‘such matiers as he had in charge’. Besides his expenses, amounting to the huge sum of £124, Pury received 20 marks as a reward.24 E403/745, mm. 3, 10; 747, m. 4; 749, m. 2; E404/59/281-2; E159/219, brevia Mich. rot. 12. The early years of this decade witnessed the growing frequency of Pury’s recorded association with the earl of Suffolk, his superior as steward of the Household. Together they were party to transactions concerning the manor of Le Mote and lands in Windsor and Clewer, which in a complicated series of conveyances in which Pury played a key role passed to the King and then to the royal foundation at Eton in 1446.25 Eton Coll. Archs., Windsor deeds, 770, 772-7, 779, 783; PROME, xi. 426. He also had close dealings with de la Pole with regard to ownership of the manor of Streatley, which he passed on to the peer in the same period.26 VCH Berks. iii. 513; CCR, 1441-7, p. 228.

Pury also became closely linked with an influential neighbour, John Norris, one of the select few esquires for the King’s body, not only in the business of endowing the foundation at Eton but also in their private affairs.27 CCR, 1447-54, pp. 25, 142, 283, 407, 423, 475-6; CPR, 1446-52, pp. 277-8; CP25(1)/13/85/20. They offered each other mutual support in various undertakings,28 E210/4521; CCR, 1447-54, p. 475; Barfield, ii. 163-4. and when Norris glazed his manor-house at Ockwells he made sure that Pury’s coat of arms was depicted in the windows along with those of his other friends and benefactors.29 VCH Berks. iii. 95. Pury cemented their friendship by standing surety for Norris and members of his family in the Exchequer, and joining them in establishing a guild at Maidenhead for the repair and maintenance of the bridge over the Thames.30 CFR, xviii. 158, 229; CPR, 1446-52, p. 576.

It is uncertain at what date Pury was awarded the office of avener in the Household, with responsibility for organizing supplies of hay, oats, beans, peas and litter for the royal stables, but this may not have happened until February 1446.31 E101/409/11, f. 40v; CPR, 1446-52, p. 262. For a pardon as serj. of the avenary in June 1446 see CPR, 1441-6, p. 402. Cf. a suit of 1457 when he was alleged to have requisitioned 36 quarters of oats by force: KB27/785, rot. 36d. As such he was then granted for life buildings on the wharves on opposite banks of the Thames at the Tower of London for the use of the avenary, after he had demonstrated that large sums of money were being wasted on hiring granaries.32 CPR, 1441-6, p. 402. It is indicative of Pury’s important place in the administration of the Household from 1447 to 1454 that he frequently received at the Exchequer assignments in very large sums of money for its creditors and for its successive treasurers, Sir Roger Fiennes*, (Sir) John Stourton II*, and John, Lord Dudley.33 E403/749, m. 2; 765, mm. 2, 5; 769, 771, 773, 775, 779, 781, 785, 786, 788, 791, 793, 796, 798; E101/410/6, f. 1. On occasion he was also engaged in the transfer of funds to the queen’s establishment.34 A.R. Myers, Crown, Household and Parl. 169. In an expression of gratitude for Pury’s service on 16 Nov. 1446 the King granted him a charter enabling him to crenellate his mansion of Chamberhouse, to create a park out of 345 acres of land there and to have free warren on his demesne at Thatcham.35 CChR, vi. 72. Following his grandiose building-works the manor-house, duly fortified with a moat, became known as ‘Chamberhouse Castle’.

Pury’s position in the Household and links with the King’s chief minister Suffolk undoubtedly played a decisive part in securing his elections to the consecutive Parliaments of 1447 and February 1449. He was resident in neither of the constituencies he represented. It may be confidently surmised that his return for Oxfordshire was arranged by the sheriff John Penycoke*, an esquire for the King’s body who returned one of his fellows, Pury’s friend John Norris, for Berkshire. Since the previous October Pury had been holding the office of collector of tunnage and poundage in London, but shortly before the parliamentary elections were held it was decided that he would share it with Norris until the two men received another post providing a fee of £40 p.a.; meanwhile they were permitted to delegate their duties to deputies while nevertheless receiving ten marks a year each. In fact, it was Pury alone who answered for the subsidy at the Exchequer.36 CFR, xviii. 99; E403/775, mm. 7, 11; 781, m. 6; CPR, 1446-52, p. 206; E122/73/23. The fall of the duke of Suffolk early in 1450 led to the removal of his supporters Norris and Pury from their post in London, and a turbulent summer followed with catastrophic military defeat in Normandy, rebellion at home and the murder of several of King’s councillors. Pury helped to restore order by serving on commissions to deliver the gaols at Reading, Oxford and Wallingford in October, and then agreed to take on the escheatorship of Oxfordshire and Berkshire for two consecutive terms. While in office he made sure, however, to obtain pardons (in June 1451 and August 1452), exonerating him from all debts and discrepancies in his accounts as avener and for any other misdemeanours.37 E153/1514; CPR, 1446-52, p. 427; C67/40, m. 22.

After the King became mentally incapacitated in the disastrous summer of 1453, and the constitutional crisis prompted the appointment of the duke of York as Protector in the following spring, the size of the royal establishment came under scrutiny. In the special ordinances for the Household drawn up later that year Pury’s duties and responsibilities as avener were more clearly defined, so that under his command in the stables would be a yeoman, two clerks and 19 other men, while at the same time he was accorded considerable powers over other royal servants, who were not permitted to leave court without his licence. Even so, he was bound on pain of £100 to ‘soo kepe it in good reule’ before being granted confirmation of his post in November.38 PPC, vi. 213-15, 233. Although the pardon granted him on 14 Oct. 1455 does not specifically mention his office as avener, it seems likely that he retained it, for in the following July he received assignments for John Brecknock*, the keeper of the wardrobe, for the expenses of the Household. Not long before, the two men had been rewarded for discovering the true title of a royal ward, the son and heir of Miles Windsor, whereby the royal coffers had benefited to the tune of 250 marks.39 C67/41, m. 24; E403/807, mm. 3, 6.

Little is heard of Pury during the late 1450s after power shifted to the queen and her allies and while the Court was based in the Midlands, although he made appearances as a mainpernor for Sir John Lisle in 1457, and supported the former Speaker (Sir) John Wenlock* in his dispute with Archbishop Tregurry of Dublin, which went to arbitration in 1458.40 CFR, xix. 202-3; CCR, 1454-61, pp. 276-7. It looks like he relinquished his office in the Household well before January 1459, when he was described in another pardon as ‘former’ avener.41 C67/42, m. 37. He had certainly been removed from office by Sept. 1460: CPR, 1452-61, p. 627. Nevertheless, following the attainders of the Yorkist lords in the Coventry Parliament of 1459 he was able to obtain custody of the lordship of Crookham (of which he held his Chamberhouse estate, now forfeited by the earl and countess of Salisbury.42 CFR, xix. 264. Among those proscribed in the Parliament was Sir Robert Harcourt*, whose arrest was ordered in February 1460. It transpires from charges Harcourt brought later in the law courts, that on the following 11 June, while the Lancastrian forces were gathering in the Midlands to meet the threat posed by the Yorkist earls (reported to be launching an invasion from Calais), a number of prominent royalists broke into Sir Robert’s property at Stanton Harcourt, assaulted him and then held him prisoner for the next seven weeks (in effect preventing him from fighting for the Yorkists at the battle of Northampton). Those whom Harcourt accused of holding him captive included Pury and (Sir) Edmund Hampden*, his fellow MP for Oxfordshire in 1449.43 KB27/795, rot. 29; 798, rot. 63; CP40/808, rots. 188, 342, 355. Whether Pury himself took part in the battle on 10 July is not revealed, but an indictment later made before the j.p.s of Middlesex accused John Browne, a labourer from ‘Colbroke’ in Buckinghamshire (where Pury held land), of having joined others in attacking Pury the next day at West Drayton, causing him severe injuries.44 The indictment was not made until Jan. 1463, long after the event: KB9/303/28. There is no record of Pury’s whereabouts for the next 12 months, a period of turmoil which saw further battles and the accession of Edward IV, in March 1461, but he evidently chose not to follow Henry VI into exile, and hastened to procure a general pardon from the new King as early in the reign as 23 July. This may have helped him to rebuff Harcourt’s suits (which were still pending in the law courts in Easter term 1463).45 CPR, 1461-7, p. 123. He obtained another in Nov. 1468, during a political crisis: C67/46, m. 17.

Although the accession of Edward IV decisively marked the end of Pury’s career as a servant of the Crown, he eventually found a new patron in the person of the King’s brother, George, duke of Clarence. Following the duke’s marriage in 1469 to Isabel Neville, Clarence became Pury’s feudal lord at Crookham, and it was probably then that Pury entered his service and became controller of his household. He was named among the followers of Clarence and his father-in-law the earl of Warwick whose lands were to be seized by John Roger III* under a commission of 25 Apr. 1470, after duke and earl had risen in rebellion. However, he moved quickly to protect his interests by securing another pardon just a few days later.46 CPR, 1467-77, pp. 208, 218. Pury was not appointed to any ad hoc commissions when Warwick and Clarence engineered the Readeption of Henry VI that autumn, although he was influential enough with the authorities to help (Sir) William Norris* to obtain Henry’s pardon in early April 1471.47 Stonor Letters, ii (Cam. Soc. ser. 3, xxix), 118. Clarence was reconciled to his brother on Edward’s return to England shortly afterwards, and when that summer their sister Anne, duchess of Exeter, initiated divorce proceedings against her husband Henry Holand, now a prisoner in the Tower, Pury appeared to testify on her behalf at Clarence’s London house.48 M.M.N. Stansfield, ‘Holland Fam.’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1987), 251-2, from Bodl. Lib. Rawlinson A146, f. 2. It was while he was a retainer of the King’s brother that he was returned to his third Parliament, this time as a shire knight for Berkshire. During the second session of the Parliament, in February 1473, he agreed to be a trustee of the manor of Aldermaston, belonging to his fellow MP Thomas de la Mare†, and in early April he witnessed a conveyance made by one of his co-feoffees, Bishop Beauchamp of Salisbury.49 CPR, 1467-77, p. 374; Eton Coll. Archs., Windsor deeds 851. Clarence and his duchess confirmed Pury’s charters regarding the park at Crookham in March 1475, and it looks as if Pury continued to be controller of the ducal household until Clarence’s execution three years later.50 Harl. roll C11. His role is also indicated by his links with the duke’s retainer Sir Roger Tocotes†: CCR, 1468-76, no. 932.

Pury’s second marriage, contracted over 30 years earlier, was to the widow of an esquire from Yorkshire who had been receiver-general to Robert Neville, bishop of Salisbury.51 Gargrave had been called ‘of Reading’ in 1436 when assessed for taxation on an income from land worth £14 p.a. in Berks., Surr. and Yorks., and an annuity of ten marks from the bp.: E159/211, recorda Mich. rot. 1; 212, recorda, Hil. rot. 14 (xii); CP40/779, rot. 558; 782, rot. 446. Together in 1453 the couple obtained papal letters instructing the diocesan to allow them to build a private chapel at Chamberhouse, as at certain times of the year flooding prevented them from attending the parish church at Thatcham.52 CPL, x. 715-16. The marriage produced a single child, Anne, a notable heiress who was married to William Danvers†, one of the formidable Danvers brothers who rose to prominence in the legal profession. Danvers provided counsel for the Purys in their extremely long drawn-out dispute with the abbot of Reading over an estate consisting of nine tofts and some 100 acres of land in Thatcham and Crookham. This dispute, which had started as early as 1446, gave rise to a litany of complaints from the abbot, who alleged that the Purys had removed boundary hedges, filled in ditches, diverted water courses, blocked paths, built highways and cut down timber to use for their building works at Chamberhouse. Even though in the late 1450s the quarrel came for arbitration before Alice, dowager duchess of Suffolk, that was by no means the end of it, for in the spring of 1479 the abbot initiated proceedings against the Purys at an assize of novel disseisin. The couple gave their son-in-law full power to plead on their behalf, and after private talks with the abbot he agreed to allow the assize to pass as the abbot’s counsel advised, and to cease all legal actions against him. In exchange, or so the Purys contended, the abbot promised that he would grant Danvers and his wife the properties in contention, in return for a suitable sum of money. On the basis of this agreement they did not defend the action at the assize, and formally released the abbot from all actions, including those for a number of alleged criminal offences. However, the recognitors of the assize (the abbot’s own bailiffs), found that their master had been wrongfully disseised of the estate and awarded him damages of 700 marks. A suit in Chancery ensued.53 C66/486, m. 21d; KB27/789, rots. 78-79; C1/53/254; 66/358-60; Chamberhouse recs. D/EZ 77/4/1.

Such confrontations clouded Pury’s final years, as also did a more personal matter, involving his illegitimate daughter, Susan. Before May 1454 he had arranged for Susan to marry John Skelton III*, the spigurnel in Chancery. Pury borrowed £50 from his new son-in-law, but although he eventually repaid the money in about 1480 (long after Skelton’s death) the administrators of Skelton’s goods sued an action of debt against him at Norwich (where, he said, he had never written or sealed any obligation to Skelton). Pury also claimed that the administrators had defrauded him of a legacy of goods worth £40 which his son-in-law had left him. Yet another version of events presents Pury’s character in a different light. Skelton’s son John claimed that Pury had owed his dying father £60, and that when he himself had been forced to bring an action for debt in London to recover the money, Pury had ‘leyd in a wryte of privilege of the comen place’ to get himself discharged, accused Skelton of false imprisonment and sued him for debts amounting to £220, with the malicious intention that, not being able to find anyone to stand bail, he would be kept in prison.54 C1/60/115; 64/444. Susan had figured with her sister Anne in the grant of goods Pury made to Norris and others in Apr. 1450 (Barfield, ii. 163-4), although there is nothing in that deed to indicate that she was illegitimate.

Pury is last recorded, as a witness to a Danvers deed, in September 1481, and probably died in 1484; a writ de diem clausit extremum was issued on 12 Nov. that year.55 CCR, 1476-85, no. 818; CFR, xxi. no. 831; Barfield, i. 277 (noting entries in the ct. rolls for Thatcham of 1 and 2 Ric. III which suggest Pury died between those dates). Pury’s daughter Anne Danvers (d.1531), duly inherited his estates.56 VCH Berks. iii. 316-17. Following the death in 1504 of her husband, who had been appointed justice of the common pleas by Henry VII, she donated to Syon abbey a New Testament inscribed with a request for prayers for named members of her family, including John Pury and his two wives.57 Barfield, ii. 246-8.