WELTDEN, Thomas

Thomas was the eldest son and heir of Simon Weltden, a member of a long-established Northumberland landowning family who had sat for the borough of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1426. The first reference to Thomas dates from 4 Jan. 1424 when his father contracted him in marriage to Margaret, daughter of the Lancashire lawyer, William Gernet. The match was almost certainly brokered by Thomas’s putative uncle, Richard Weltden, a prominent lawyer with connexions to the Neville family, who had probably come to know Gernet through their mutual interests at Westminster. The portion of only £40 was quite modest, but the marriage was a good one and brought Thomas an immediate interest in the family’s manor of Thornbrough.3 Hist. Northumb. x. 323-4.

Thomas must have been a young man at this date and it was not until 1450 that he inherited the family estates. Yet, even though he only had the modest property settled upon him on his marriage, he took a significant part in local affairs in the 1440s, serving as escheator in 1443-4 and, more surprisingly, as sheriff in 1446-7. Then, immediately after his father’s death, he both succeeded him as customs controller in Newcastle and was again named as escheator. 4 CFR, xvii. 285; xviii. 57, 187; CPR, 1446-52, p. 408. Such prominence is hard to explain, but it may have arisen from a connexion with the Nevilles. His putative uncle Richard frequently acted for the junior (and more important) branch of the family, headed by Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and although no direct evidence has been found to make the same connexion for Thomas, what is known of his later career is consistent with such a connexion. It may provide the context for the marriage he contracted in the autumn of 1453 for his son, Simon, to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Denton of Denton (Cumberland), a family of middle rank associated with the Nevilles.5 Hist. Northumb. x. 329. Much more importantly, it would explain his election to represent Northumberland in the Yorkist Parliament of October 1460. Significantly in this regard, on 20 Nov., during the first session of this assembly, he offered surety in a royal grant made to John Huddleston of Millom (Cumberland), a militarily active member of the Neville retinue.6 C219/16/6; CFR, xix. 286.

Yet Weltden’s probable connexion with the Nevilles did not lead him to take a prominent part in public affairs in the new reign. Although he was once more appointed controller of customs in the port of Newcastle in May 1461, he did not receive any other offices or appointments, and very little is recorded of his activities more generally. The most interesting reference to him dates from Hilary term 1466 when, with more than 40 lesser men, he was sued in the court of common pleas by Ralph, Lord Greystoke, for depasturing his grass at Newbiggin-on-the-Moor (in Newburn), about half way between Welton and Newcastle. 7 CPR, 1461-7, p. 12; CP40/818, rot. 215d. No evidence survives to give this alleged offence a context, and he died soon afterwards. He was present at Newcastle on 30 Apr. 1467 to witness the parliamentary election for Northumberland, but was probably dead by August 1469 when John Browne was appointed to succeed him as controller of customs.8 C219/17/1; CPR, 1467-77, p. 166. By then his son Simon had already assumed a place in local affairs, serving a term as escheator in 1464-5, and later, like his father and grandfather before him, holding office as customs collector in Newcastle.9 CFR, xx. 129; xxi. 216. According to a later visitation, the MP also had a daughter, the wife of John Mitford who died at the battle of Towton in 1461. The fate of Weltden’s widow, Margaret, is not recorded.10 Hist. Northumb. x. 329.