STYROPE, William

Styrope’s origins are unknown, but he was probably a Wiltshire man by birth. He owed his modest career to the patronage of one of that county’s wealthiest landowners, Walter, Lord Hungerford†. In June 1431 he and two monks were entrusted by the Crown with the keeping of the alien priory of Wilsford in Lincolnshire for the long term of 30 years at an annual rent of 21 marks. Since he was a man of little account, there can only be one explanation for this grant: Hungerford, then in office as treasurer, secured it for him.2 CFR, xvi. 41. In the following year he was elected to Parliament for Chippenham, of which Hungerford was lord, and thereafter he was probably returned for that borough to every Parliament that met before his master’s death in August 1449 (returns are missing for the Parliaments of 1439 and 1445). There is, however, no direct evidence of his involvement in Hungerford’s affairs until 1433, when he was one of his feoffees in the reversion of property in Wanborough near Salisbury.3 Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 478; CCR, 1435-41, p. 61.

Styrope’s recommendations as a servant no doubt lay in his legal training, evident from his later career, and he probably also had that to thank for a good marriage. This had been contracted by October 1436, when he and his wife, Joan, acquired what amounted to a considerable estate for a man of his rank, namely 40 messuages, six tofts, 100 acres of land, 24½ acres of meadow, ten acres of pasture, two acres of wood and 50s. of rent in Berkhampstead and elsewhere in Hertfordshire together with five acres of land in Wingrave in Buckinghamshire. This seems to have been Joan’s inheritance and it may be that the deforciants, Richard Fynlegh and his wife Elizabeth, were her parents. However this may be, by another final concord levied in 1443, the property was settled on our MP and Joan and their issue with successive remainders to Joan’s issue and her right heirs. One can only speculate as to why a minor lawyer, seemingly from Wiltshire, should have married a Hertfordshire heiress; but there can be no little doubt about the identification for party to the second fine was another Wiltshire lawyer, John Whittocksmead*.4 CP25(1)/292/69/203; 293/70/275; CP40/730, rot. 392. Although the main local focus of our MP’s interests remained the concerns of Lord Hungerford, he came to play a small part in the affairs of Hertfordshire. In 1446 he acted as a feoffee for Richard Brown, a Household esquire and the royal parker of Berkhampstead; and in 1450 he was one of those to whom William Canwick of Stevenage conveyed his goods.5 CP25(1)/91/115/134; CCR, 1454-61, p. 488.

Nearly all else that is known of Styrope concerns his service to Lord Hungerford, of which his parliamentary career was part. For example, in March 1439 he offered mainprise when an important wardship was granted to his master; in 1442 Hungerford nominated him as his attorney in arrangements concerning his hospital at Heytesbury; and in 1447 he acted in a final concord by which the Hungerfords acquired the manor of Witcombe. By 1453 he was in receipt of a life annuity of £4 from Hungerford’s son and successor, Robert, and it is likely that he had then long been in receipt of that fee.6 CFR, xvii. 82; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 264-5; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 583; SC6/971/12, m. 2. Indirectly this service to Hungerford brought him his filacership in the court of King’s bench. His appointment came shortly after Hungerford’s friend, John Fortescue*, had taken office as chief justice of that court and responsibility for the appointment of the filacers, and there can be little doubt that it was Hungerford’s patronage that recommended him to the new chief justice. Styrope and Fortescue are found acting together in Hungerford’s service on several occasions, most notably when they were named among the executors of his will of July 1449. The filacer did well from the will’s terms. In addition to bequests of £5 with a silver cup and saltcellar, he was granted £10 for his labours as an executor.7 Lambeth Palace Lib., Reg. Stafford, ff. 116v-117v. Clearly the relationship between master and servant had been a close and personal one, and our MP’s career went into decline on his lord’s death a month later. His parliamentary career ended and he makes few further appearances in the records.

Styrope’s later career may also have been impaired by ill health. This, at least, is one explanation for his apparent negligence in discharging his responsibilities as filacer. In Michaelmas term 1459 proceedings were instituted against him by the court for his persistent absences from his office, which he was bound to discharge in person, and on 30 Apr. 1460 he surrendered his filacership (perhaps under compulsion, although the record states he did so ‘ex mera et spontanea voluntate sua’) in favour of Henry Merland†.8 KB27/794, rot. 22d; 796, rot. 73d. He was still alive in 1465, when, with John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, he was defendant in what appears to have been a collusive action sued by John Newburgh II* over the Poyntz lands in Somerset. He was dead by 6 July 1471.9 CP40/817, rot. 542; Tropenell Cart. ii. 269.