WARNECAMP, William

Members of the Warnecamp family, which took its name from Warningcamp, a mile to the east of Arundel, represented the borough in at least six of the Parliaments assembled between 1334 and 1380. One of them, Thomas Warnecamp† (three times an MP), held office as coroner of Arundel in the period 1361-91, and as deputy to the earl of Arundel’s steward in the rape of Chichester in 1390-2.2 Suss. Arch. Collns. xcviii. 69. As the earl’s tenant he rented several properties in Arundel itself, including the house where he lived, as well as land a short distance from the town at Lyminster, Offham and Warningcamp.3 Two Fitzalan Surveys (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxvii), 116, 119, 126, 127, 131. Thomas may have been William’s grandfather, and the father of John Warnecamp, who besides serving both Earl Richard (d.1397) and his successor Earl Thomas (d.1415), in an undefined capacity,4 CPR, 1452-61, p. 203. was long connected with the administration of the estates of the French abbey of Sees, concentrated at Lyminster, which, sometimes in association with one or other of the earls, he farmed from the Crown for a period of 23 years from 1390 onwards. John also achieved prominence as steward of Arundel College in 1408, and sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1410-11.5 CFR, ix. 64; x. 331; xi. 64, 235; xii. 21, 194; xiii. 150; HMC Var. i. 184. When assessed for taxation in 1412 John’s income from land in Sussex was said to amount to £20 p.a. (of which his property in Arundel provided half), but even if William was his son and heir he did not inherit all of this, for at least £8 p.a. of John’s income from Sussex – revenues from land at Warnham, Rusper and Slinfold – as well as £2 p.a. from a small estate in distant Suffolk, had come to him through marriage to Isabel atte Felde, whose eventual heirs were both daughters.6 CCR, 1409-13, p. 76; Feudal Aids, vi. 523. John died before Michaelmas term 1413, when his executors brought suits in the common pleas against his debtors.7 Add. 39375, f. 186v; CP40/635, rot. 99; 652, rot. 117. By then his wid. had married William Waleys (d.1418), and she subsequently took as her 3rd husband Robert Jugler†. Her parentage and marriage to Warnecamp are not noted in Jugler’s biography in The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 504-5, where Waleys is wrongly said to have died in 1405: see E122/182/20.

William is first recorded in September 1417 when a jury giving evidence before royal commissioners presented that he and a number of other men from Arundel had on the night of 4 Jan. that year broken down the bridge which had recently been built across the river Arun at Littlehampton, and removed timber worth as much as £40. On being brought before the King’s bench eight years later to answer the charge, Warnecamp and the rest explained that the wooden structures of the bridge had impeded the passage of boats bringing merchandise and victuals to Arundel from the coast, and that on the night in question, being prevented from sailing their boats up river, and in danger of capsizing, they had removed the posts and stakes to clear the waterway. However, they denied stealing them; they had merely placed them on the bank. The defendants were eventually acquitted, but not until 1431.8 KB27/656, rex rot. 13. In the pleadings Warnecamp was described as a draper, although it is clear from the description of the cargoes on the boats attempting to reach Arundel that he also traded in various other commodities besides cloth. These included iron, herring and garlic. On occasion he supplied wine to the household of the dowager countess of Arundel, and his dealings with Sussex sheep farmers point to his interest in the wool trade.9 Arundel Castle mss, receiver’s accts. A230; CP40/651, rot. 483d.

In December 1421 Warnecamp had served as a juror at Chichester providing information about the landed possessions of Arundel’s recently-deceased lord, John, Lord Arundel and Mautravers, and he did likewise at Arundel in August 1423 for the post mortem on the late Earl Thomas’s sister Margaret, wife of Sir Roland Lenthall.10 C138/59/51; CIPM, xxii. 119. It is possible that John Warnecamp, recorded as a juror at the post mortem on John, earl of Arundel, in Oct. 1435, was a mistake for William: CIPM, xxiv. 377. Meanwhile, when up at Westminster representing his home town in Parliament in 1422, he had taken the opportunity of bringing an action in the court of common pleas against a local husbandman for breaking into his house at Arundel, taking goods worth £2 and abducting his servant, a kinswoman of the accused.11 CP40/647, rot. 83d. Warnecamp attended the shire court at Chichester for the parliamentary elections held on 31 Jan. 1426 and 17 Apr. 1432,12 C219/13/4; 14/3. and a further measure of his standing in the county is his inclusion on the list of those required to take the oath against maintenance of law-breakers, as administered in the spring of 1434.13 CPR, 1429-36, p. 372.

Warnecamp himself was not necessarily always law-abiding. In Michaelmas term 1432 he had been sued in the common pleas by the prior of Tortington for illegal detention of a bond, a matter which the prior subsequently brought to the attention of the court of Chancery, then alleging that Warnecamp had conspired to defraud him of the sum of £20.14 C1/11/520; 12/146; CP40/687, rot. 436. Their quarrel grew more serious after Warnecamp accused the prior, two of the friars from the friary at Arundel and a local baker of breaking into his property and assaulting a servant. He also had the temerity to sue Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland (who held estates in the same part of west Sussex), for a debt of £15 16s.15 CP40/691, rot. 545; 724, rot. 81. Warnecamp began subsequent actions for debt on behalf of his wife Isabel, both in her capacity as executrix of her former husband, Richard Clynt, a citizen of Chichester who had also held property in Hampshire at West Meon, and on her own account.16 Add. 39376, f. 24; CP40/740, rot. 49d. For instance, in 1450 the Warnecamps were suing Richard Gryme of Southampton and his wife Joan for a debt of £2 which Joan had contracted to Isabel while both women were single. The suit was still continuing at Easter 1453.17 CP40/756, rot. 350d; 757, rot. 13; 769, rot. 411. Warnecamp is not recorded thereafter, and died before Michaelmas term 1455, when William Jacob* of Chichester brought a plea against his widow and executrix for the sum of £17.18 CP40/779, rot. 458.