STOKES, John I

As John Stokes was a very common name in the fifteenth century, it is not always possible to be certain about the details of the career of this MP, especially as several of his namesakes were active in the same region of the upper Thames valley during Henry VI’s reign.3 In 1434 four men of this name were sworn to the peace in the locality: one in Oxon., one in Bucks. (possibly the same man – the John Stokes who had married the wid. of Roger Giffard of Twyford), and two in Berks., distinguished from each other as ‘of Brimpton’ and ‘of Abingdon’: CPR, 1429-36, pp. 394, 397, 402, 403. The MP was not John Stokes (c.1399-c.1463) of Brimpton, the s. and h. of William Stokes (d.1427) and his 1st w. Elizabeth, half-sis. and h. of Thomas de Brumpton (d.1382) of Church Eaton, Staffs., Longford, Salop and Brimpton: Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. iv. 16-17, 23. (William had at least two more wives – Maud Aleyn (d.1421), the paternal grandmother of Thomas Brown IV*, and Katherine, wid. of Thomas Adderbury: C.C. Brookes, Hist. Steeple Aston and Middle Aston, 191-3; C139/28/34.) That John Stokes inherited from his fa. Middle Aston in Oxon., and although he kept his mother’s estate at Brimpton he parted with Church Eaton to the earl of Stafford in 1438 and all his other lands in Salop and Staffs. in the 1440s: C139/28/34; Add. Ch. 24708; CCR, 1422-9, p. 298; 1441-7, pp. 352, 363; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xi. 232; CPR, 1441-6, p. 229; VCH Hants iv. 352. After his death, bef. Mar. 1466 (CAD, i. A568, 585, 588), Brimpton passed to his son, William (d.1477). It is not impossible (albeit unlikely) that the MP was the John Stokes who m. bef. Trin. 1415, Isabel Stretely, wid. of Roger Giffard (d.1409) of Twyford, Bucks. Besides Twyford, Isabel had as her jointure Begbroke and Newington, Oxon. and possibly also Helliden, Northants., which gave her an income of at least £33 p.a. until her son Thomas Giffard came of age in 1430 (CIPM, xix. 518-21; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 285; VCH Oxon. vi. 292; xi. 149; VCH Bucks. iv. 256; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. n.s. v. 45-48; C139/45/36; 46/44). Her 2nd husband, Stokes, had the wardship of his stepson from 1421, and secured from him tenure of at least part of the Giffard estates for his lifetime: Feudal Aids, iv. 41, 48, 197; CCR, 1429-35, pp. 44, 107-8. Isabel seems to have died bef. Nov. 1437, and the fact that Giffard held no land in Oxon. at his death in 1469 (although his gds. later recovered the estate at South Newington) may indicate that his stepfa. was then still alive: CPR, 1436-41, p. 119; VCH Oxon. xi. 149. His family background remains conjectural, and so too the early stages of his involvement in local administration. However, it may have been he who in November 1428 shared in the farm of the subsidy and alnage of cloth sold in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, initially for seven years, but then extended in 1435 for a further seven-year term.4 CFR, xv. 245; xvi. 251. We are on firmer ground with the appearance of John Stokes ‘of Northamptonshire, esquire’ who on 14 Feb. 1433 stood surety at the Exchequer for Ralph, Lord Cromwell, and in May the following year did likewise for the receiver-general of Cromwell’s estates, William Stanlowe*.5 CFR, xvi. 136, 204. The conjecture that this John was the future MP is supported by the contents of a deed dated November 1437, in which Stokes, having married the heiress of the Berkshire manor of Harwell, named Stanlowe as one of the two feoffees of her property appointed in order to secure his tenure of the manor. Under the terms of this arrangement Harwell was settled on Stokes and his wife Alice and her heirs, and the manor of Midgham, a few miles to the east of Newbury (which Stokes seems to have acquired by purchase a few years earlier), was settled on the couple and their issue, with remainder to John’s right heirs.6 CP25(1)/13/83/26. Another transaction, completed just a month later, demonstrates that the MP belonged to the family of Stokes which earlier in the century had lived at Ashby St. Ledgers in Northamptonshire. In this transaction, Stokes granted the widow of John Catesby* and others a yearly rent of five marks from his manor of Midgham, while stipulating that this grant would be invalidated if they obtained peaceful possession of ‘Stokes maner’ and ‘Stokeslands’ at Ashby. It may be presumed from this that he was a kinsman of Thomas Stokes of Ashby St. Ledgers who had died in 1416, although quite how closely the two men were related is not known.7 CAD, iv. A7131-2, 8469. Thomas Stokes and his wife Ellen are commemorated by a monumental brass which also depicts 16 ch.: ref. to brass:.

Despite his roots in Northamptonshire, Stokes established himself first in Berkshire and then in Oxfordshire, doing so in part through making a profitable marriage. The surname of Stokes’s wife, Alice, remains a mystery, although she came from a gentry family and her property known as ‘Bayllols’ in Harwell brought her husband an annual income of at least 20 marks.8 VCH Berks. iii. 322, 488; C140/72/66. Quite how Stokes acquired his holdings at Bicester, in north-east Oxfordshire, is unclear, but they too may have formed part of Alice’s inheritance. It may be confidently assumed that he held some land in Oxfordshire before his appointment to the county bench in 1438, and early that year he joined two of the local gentry, Edmund Rede* and Thomas Wyfold, in donating £20 to Dorchester abbey so that they and their wives would benefit from the daily masses sung in St. Mary’s chapel in the conventual church.9 Boarstall Cart. (Oxf. Hist. Soc. lxxxviii), 221. Although not so closely linked with the treasurer of England, Lord Cromwell, as to be listed among his personal retainers, it may have been Stokes’s connexion with Cromwell which led to his shrievalty of Oxfordshire and Berkshire in 1440-1. Even so, he failed to render full account at the Exchequer when his term of office ended; as a consequence some of his property at Bignell and Bicester, valued at £10 p.a., was confiscated to pay his dues.10 E364/76, rot. P. Bignell had earlier been held by John Felmersham, who was still living in 1446-7, so how the property had come to Stokes is unclear: VCH Oxon. vi. 23; J.C. Blomfield, Hist. Bicester, 180-2. As ‘lord of Bignell’ he released the prior of Bicester priory from a rent-charge of 6s. 8d. a year for a plot of land outside the priory gates, and evidently established friendly relations with him, for the prior baptized his daughter in 1439 or 1440, and presented him with a robe 12 years later. This implies that Stokes was engaged in the service of the priory in an administrative capacity.11 Blomfield, 173, 181, 187.

Stokes may have been first returned to the Commons in 1442, as a representative for the borough of Wallingford, not far away from his wife’s property at Harwell. His links with the place were ones of tenure as well as geographical proximity, for Harwell was parcel of the honour of St. Valery and Wallingford, and it is significant that one of the two feoffees entrusted to make settlements of the couple’s estate in 1437 had been the bailiff of the honour, Peter Idle.12 SC6/1096/19. Another possible contact was the prior of St. Trinity priory, Wallingford, who was a namesake of his, although Prior Stokes resigned before John sat in Parl.: VCH Berks. ii. 79. Yet discrepancies in the documents sent by the sheriff to Chancery cast doubt as to whether Stokes actually sat in the Parliament. The indenture, drawn up at the guildhall in Wallingford on 12 Jan. 1442, bears the name of John Stokes, albeit written in a different ink from the rest of the document, but the dorse of the writ records that of Andrew Grygges* instead.13 C219/15/2. Which of the two men took the seat alongside the royal servant John Bridgwater* is not known. Stokes sued out a general pardon as ‘of Bignell, gentleman’ in 1446,14 C67/39, m. 46. and no controversy attaches to his return to the Parliament at Bury St. Edmunds in the following year. In November 1448, then described as ‘of London’, he stood surety for Peter Idle when the bailiff of the honour was granted custody of the King’s mills outside Wallingford’s south gate, and he likewise provided financial guarantees for Idle at the Exchequer in October 1455, only this time being styled ‘of Bignell, esquire’.15 CFR, xviii. 101; xix. 140.

Having risen in status and acquired lands valued at over £40 p.a., Stokes was able to arrange for his daughter Elizabeth a marriage into one of the leading families of the region. In June 1454 the vicar of Bicester was licensed to solemnize the wedding in the private chapel in Stokes’s house at Bignell between her and William Harcourt†, the younger brother of Sir Robert Harcourt * of Stanton Harcourt.16 VCH Oxon. vi. 43, and also mentioned in Sel. Cases in Star Chamber (Selden Soc. xvi), 145 n. 33, which confuses Harcourt with his nephew, another William†. This proved to be an important alliance, especially as from then on Stokes appears to have shared the Harcourts’ political affiliations, joining them in growing opposition to the Lancastrian court and in offering support to Richard, duke of York, and his allies. Both he and Sir Robert were dropped from the bench in November 1458, and a document dated a year later in October 1459 records them in close association.17 Boarstall Cart. 224. Very shortly afterwards, Sir Robert was proscribed in the Parliament at Coventry for his lawless behaviour, and the Yorkist lords, attainted for treason at the same time, fled the country. Stokes’s whereabouts over the next few months have not been discovered, but in the late spring of 1460 Sir Robert, taken captive by forces loyal to the Lancastrian regime, was prevented from providing military assistance to the Yorkist earls after their return to England from Calais. Nevertheless they swept to victory at the battle of Northampton in July, and a month after they took control over King and government they reappointed both Harcourt and Stokes as j.p.s, placed the former as constable of Wallingford castle and named them both on a commission to deliver the castle’s gaol. There, a number of adherents to the Yorkist cause had been incarcerated in the spring by the earl of Wiltshire, chief among them being their leader Thomas Roger*. When writs were sent out summoning Parliament to meet on 7 Oct., Stokes was returned for Oxfordshire in company with Sir Robert’s brother Richard Harcourt* at elections held at Oxford on 11 Sept., and then two weeks later he attended the elections held at Newbury on 24 Sept. to endorse the return of Sir Robert Harcourt and the freed Thomas Roger as representatives for Berkshire.18 C219/16/6. Peter Idle attested Stokes’s return.

At an unknown date before the end of the year, and probably during the first session of the Parliament, when the duke of York secured recognition as Henry VI’s heir and a grant of the estates of the prince of Wales,19 PROME, xii. 526-9. the duke appointed Stokes to the office of parker at Beckley, the caput of the honour of St. Valery from which the MP held his wife’s property at Harwell. Until recently the office had been occupied by (Sir) Edmund Hampden*, a committed supporter of Henry VI and member of the queen’s household, who, incidentally, had been one of those whom Sir Robert Harcourt accused of unjustly holding him captive in the summer. Stokes’s movements in the following months, which saw York’s death at Wakefield and two more major battles in February 1461, are obscure, but on 13 Mar., within a few days of the accession of York’s son as Edward IV, the new King confirmed him in the parkership of Beckley. At an election held at Abingdon on 1 July Stokes was returned to represent Berkshire in Edward’s first Parliament, which eventually assembled on 4 Nov.20 E13/149, rot. 38d. Four days after the Commons met he was appointed escheator in the joint bailiwick of that county and Oxfordshire, and contrary of statute then held office for two consecutive terms. While escheator he took out a pardon relating to his earlier service as sheriff, and in July 1463 he and his wife, as tenants of the manor of Bignell, obtained confirmation of a royal charter granted nearly a century before, in 1377, whereby Sir John de Worthe and his heirs were entitled to hold a weekly market and annual fair on their estate. A year later Stokes was pardoned, as former escheator, of all fines, amercements, issues, reliefs, debts and accounts due to the Exchequer,21 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 8, 276, 331; VCH Oxon. v. 62. and in May 1468 he was formally exempted for life from further employment by the Crown against his will.22 CPR, 1467-77, p. 88. During the early 1460s Stokes had established cordial relations with the chancellor, George Neville, bishop of Exeter, and when in 1465 he made arrangements for fresh settlements of Bignell and Midgham, Neville agreed to head the body of trustees. Perhaps it was this association with Neville, from whom Edward IV was becoming increasingly estranged, which led to Stokes’s removal from the Oxfordshire bench in July 1470. He was reinstated when the Nevilles placed Henry VI back on the throne later that year, and also served on other ad hoc commissions during the Readeption.23 C140/58/68; CP25(1)/294/74/27. The restored government of Edward IV had no further use for his services, although he was accorded a pardon on 28 Nov. 1471.24 C67/48 m. 35; C140/72/66.

All this while Stokes had been pursuing the former sheriff of Berkshire, Richard Restwold*, for failure to comply with the writ de expensis issued on 7 May 1462, at the close of his last Parliament. He and his fellow MP, Thomas Walrond*, were owed £10 12s. each for 49 days’ service during sessions and for four days spent travelling to and from the assembly, but although Walrond managed to gain payment from the county’s revenues in 1464, and Stokes obtained a judgement in his favour, the latter had still not obtained full satisfaction by the autumn of 1475. The barons of the Exchequer instructed the then sheriff to enter the liberty of Queen Elizabeth in his bailiwick and levy £5 3s. 4d. from Restwold’s goods, but the sheriff eventually returned in Easter term 1476 that Restwold was now dead.25 E13/149, rots. 38d, 52; 157, rot, 51d; 161, rot. 7. So too was Stokes.

Stokes’s only child, Elizabeth Harcourt, had died childless before the spring of 1465, leaving him without direct heirs. Accordingly, he sold the reversion of Bignell, to fall in after the deaths of himself and his wife, to William Staveley, a former retainer of the earl of Warwick. Staveley’s subsequent appointment as his joint parker of Beckley may have formed part of their agreement.26 CPR, 1461-7, p. 449; C140/58/68. Late on in Stokes’s life, in February 1476, he and his wife also made a settlement of her property at Harwell, arranging that after their deaths the manor would revert to feoffees, who included Alice’s kinsman John Holcotes.27 CP25(1)/13/87/18. Stokes died very soon afterwards, on 30 Mar., and after his widow’s death, in 1479, Staveley encountered difficulties in proving his title to Bignell and Midgham. He had to sue in Chancery to secure possession. The pardons which both he and Stokes had bought in 1471 were noted in Alice’s inquisitions post mortem, as alienations of property had been made without royal licence.28 C140/58/68; 72/66. Nevertheless, Bignell and Midgham descended in Staveley’s family as planned, while the heir to Harwell was found to be Robert Holcotes, an esquire from Barcote in Buckland (Berkshire), who was the grandson of Alice’s aunt.29 Some Oxon. Wills (Oxon. Rec. Soc. xxxix) 59-60.