ROUS, William

Details of this MP’s origins are sparse, although it seems most likely, in view of his parliamentary career, that he was a member of the Sussex family of this name which had owned the tiny manor of Rowses near East Grinstead.2 Suss. Arch. Collns. cvi. 58. This MP is not to be confused with the yr. bro. of Reynold Rous*, who was closely associated with the affinity of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and who died before 1464. It is not known precisely when Rous began his career as a royal clerk, but by the early 1440s he had clearly become a valued servant of Henry VI’s administration. By May 1443 he was serving as one of the clerks of the almonry, and was granted the reversion of the office of one of the two clerks of the Crown in Chancery, to be held after the death or surrender of Richard Sturgeon. In November the same year he was awarded, for his good service, the sum of 20 marks p.a. for life, arrears of which were paid to him in April 1445.3 CPR, 1441-6, p. 197; E403/755, m. 7; 757, m. 2; 759, m. 4; 762, m. 6; 765, m. 4; 767, m. 3; 771, m. 1; 775, m. 2; 777, m. 15. In is not certain when he first began his work in the Chancery, but by July 1447 he was authorizing writs of subpoena and corpus cum causa as one of the senior clerks. By November 1449 Sturgeon was dead, and Rous was able to take over as clerk of the Crown, a post which brought with it an annual income of £20 and regular grants of robes. Meanwhile he was replaced by his servant, Nicholas Baley, as clerk of the almonry. In 1450 Rous was granted an exemption from the Act of Resumption passed during the third session of the Parliament in which he represented Reigate, in respect of his salary as clerk of the Crown.4 C244/52/32; E361/6, rots. 44d, 45d, 50; CPR, 1446-52, p. 309; PROME, xii. 119.

Like other Chancery clerks Rous was made party to a number of business transactions during his career so that these, notably gifts of goods and chattels, might be recorded on the dorse of the close rolls. They included a gift made by a London grocer to Adam Moleyns, keeper of the privy seal, in April 1445.5 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 292, 308; 1447-54, p. 519; 1454-61, p. 207; 1461-8, p. 246. He was now regularly resident in the capital, and it was perhaps on this basis that in July 1450 he was included among the London commissioners charged with securing the goods of the recently murdered bishop of Salisbury, William Aiscough. Six years later his standing in the capital as well as his position in the Chancery led to his admission to the popular fraternity of St. John the Baptist, founded by the tailors of the city, on payment of a 20s. entry fee.6 Guildhall Lib. London, Merchant Taylors’ Co. accts. 34048/2, f. 101. He almost certainly acquired property in London at an early stage in his career, and by the 1460s he was the owner of two tenements there which he had acquired from Sir Roger Chamberlain*, although he experienced some difficulty in gaining full possession from Chamberlain’s feoffees.7 CPR, 1446-52, p. 390; C1/29/94.

Rous’s return as an MP to the two Parliaments held in 1449 undoubtedly owed much to his prominence as a royal servant, although his election for two boroughs controlled by the duke of Norfolk, John Mowbray, suggests an otherwise undocumented tie with that magnate.8 L.E. Moye, ‘Estates and Finances of the Mowbray Fam.’ (Duke Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1985), 440-1. Furthermore, a connexion with Norfolk, who was prominent among the early supporters of Richard, duke of York, is also suggested by the ease with which Rous was able to continue his career in the service of Edward IV after 1461. He was reappointed clerk of the Crown in July of that year and confirmed in office in March 1465. As an experienced Chancery official Rous was now drawing up around a third of the writs entered on the corpus cum causa files.9 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 53, 432; C244/105. Three years later, however, his health may have been suffering, and on 12 Feb. 1468 he appeared in Chancery to resign his post. He was dead by October 1470 when John Bagot was appointed to replace him.10 CCR, 1461-8, p. 461; CPR, 1467-77, p. 228.