ROSE, Peter

Nothing is known for certain about Rose’s family, but he may have been a kinsman of the John Rose† who represented Totnes in the Parliament of 1399, and at one time appears to have resided in that borough.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 234; CP40/688, rot. 14. It was probably he who went to France in 1420 on the expedition commanded by Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devon, in the retinue of William Carslake.4 E101/49/34, m. 9. The absence of any medieval borough records from Plympton Erle make it impossible to tell what part, if any, he played in town life, or whether he ever held office, beyond his occasional service on local juries, such as for the inquisition post mortem of Robert Pitte taken at Plympton in November 1429.5 C139/43/1. Two years previously he had headed a group of lesser local men who were accused of assaulting Robert More at Plympton Prior on 11 Dec. 1427 and robbing him of grain, cloth, pewter vessels and other household utensils to a value of £10. Rose and his fellows denied the charges, and hired the prominent Thomas Dowrich I* as their attorney.6 CP40/670, rot. 271. Not long after Rose clashed with the influential John Silverlock*, who accused him of a trespass, the details of which are now obscure.7 KB27/675, rot. 65d; 679, rot. 40d; CP40/688, rot. 14.

Rose was a tailor by occupation, and the substantial debts, totaling more than £75, which his executors sought to collect after his death suggest that he may have been a man of some substance. As some of these debts were owing from merchants of Barnstaple and Taunton, as well as the influential Tavistock burgess John Julkin*, it is possible that Rose himself was also active in trade. Certainly, he had connexions outside his own borough. His first wife, Joan (as well as her sister and nephew), were assigned legacies of money by the will of Robert Lingham, the rector of the Exeter church of St. Mary Major in 1428, and not long after Rose himself was acting as a feoffee for property in Totnes. The date of Rose’s death is obscure, but he was dead by Easter 1445. He was survived by his second wife, who, the executrix of his will, then married William Bythewater.8 CP40/724, rot. 107; 737, rot. 38; 758, rot. 283d; Reg. Lacy, 14; Devon RO, Totnes bor. recs., deeds, 136M/T/15.