YELVERTON, John

John was one of the children of the future judge William Yelverton by his first wife. The precise date of his birth is not known, but his mother was dead by 1436, and he was probably born several years before then. He grew up in Norfolk, and through marriage acquired a manor in Caister St. Edmund, some three miles south of the city of Norwich, where his father served as recorder from 1437. The marriage to Margery Morley may have taken place by 1444,4 Norf. Arch. xxiv. p. xiv. Blomefield has John Yelverton as lord of ‘Merkeshall’, called ‘Monks manor’ or ‘Lumnour Hall’, by 1451: F. Blomefield, Norf. v. 47. and although it is uncertain when her father died and she came into her inheritance, their manor of ‘Lumnour’ in Caister St. Edmund and the advowson of Markshall were eventually to descend to their son and grandson.5 C142/34/32. From her father Margery also inherited tenements, rents and services in Norwich, which, however, she and her husband were to sell in 1458 to two citizens, Richard Brown II* and William Skipwith†, for 250 marks.6 Norf. RO, Norwich city recs., ct. roll NCR 1/19a, m. 1.

Yelverton’s father had long interested himself in the affairs of the Groos family of his first wife, and in the prolonged dispute between the family’s heir male, John Groos (the young grandson of Oliver, and nephew of our MP) and its heir general, Robert Ashfield, he saw the advantage of siding with the latter, being alive to the possibility that his children by Jane Groos might have a claim to the Groos lands in the future. Judge Yelverton was a feoffee of the Groos manor of Sloley, and in 1447 John himself was party to a final concord regarding the same. The judge made sure to obtain copies of all relevant evidences,7 CP25(1)/170/190/216; C1/31/213-19; 33/195; CCR, 1461-8, pp. 86-87. but in the event his machinations and secret dealings had no effect on his son John’s prospects; he and his descendants never obtained the Groos estates.

John Yelverton’s election to the Parliament summoned to assemble on 6 Nov. 1450 probably owed much to his father’s position as a judge in King’s bench and consequent influence at a time of turmoil and rebellion. There was a perceived need for the return of MPs loyal to the current regime, and John might reasonably be expected to act in the Commons as his father instructed. It would appear that initially he was put down as an MP for Ludgershall in Wiltshire, but the schedule of Wiltshire boroughs and their sureties as returned into Chancery has his name crossed through and that of Thomas Thorpe*, the treasurer’s remembrancer at the Exchequer, inserted in its place. Yelverton’s name was then written down, apparently over an erasure, as one of the representatives for another borough in the county: Old Sarum.8 C219/16/1. It seems very likely that the changes were made after the schedule had reached the Chancery at the beginning of the Parliament. John had no known connexion with the borough or the county, although it may be significant that his father had recently been commissioned to conduct sessions of oyer and terminer there following the murder of Bishop Aiscough of Salisbury.

After his only known Parliament, in 1453 John was associated with his father and Chief Justice Fortescue* as a feoffee of the Norfolk manor of Redenhall, to hold to the use of the Robessart family, and a year later he was enfeoffed of the manors of Aslacton Parkes in Wacton and Parkes in Hedenham, inherited by Joan, wife of John Strange*.9 CP40/770, cart. rot.; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 173; CP25(1)/170/191/252. As such he was an associate of William Jenney*, a member of Lincoln’s Inn, and it may be the case that he himself was being groomed to be a lawyer in his father’s footsteps. It was as a member of the mercers’ art, however, that he was admitted to the freedom of Norwich on 24 Oct. 1455, on the basis that his ancestors had been bailiffs and merchants of the city.10 Norwich ‘Old Free Bk.’, NCR 17c, f. 55d. He obtained a royal pardon in February 1456 for the unlicensed acquisition with others of property held in chief of the Crown in Stanfield and Horningtoft.11 CPR, 1452-61, p. 277.

The Parliament which met in October 1460, in the aftermath of the Yorkist victory at Northampton, presented an opportunity for dealing with long-standing grudges in East Anglia. That month Friar Brackley wrote to John Paston*, advising him, should he be in London that term at the beginning of the Parliament, to speak with the earl of Warwick and the chancellor regarding the conduct of John Wymondham*, ‘an enemy of the King and people’, and to seek a commission against him, Sir Thomas Tuddenham*, John Heydon* and others. Brackley suggested that Judge Yelverton and John Yelverton be two of the commissioners,12 Paston Letters ed. Davis, ii. 213. and the two Yelvertons were indeed appointed to deliver the gaol in Norwich castle that December.13 C66/490, m. 12d. John’s father was retained as a judge by the new regime under Edward IV, and according to Norfolk’s historian, Blomefield, John himself became an esquire for the body of the new King. But there is now no evidence to demonstrate that this was indeed the case, and in fact John is not recorded in any official capacity after 1460.14 Blomefield, x. 30-31; followed by Vis. Norf. i. 265-6. Blomefield also erroneously states that John died on 9 July 1481.

Yelverton died before the wedding took place between his son and heir William and Anne, one of John Paston’s daughters. The protracted and contentious negotiations conducted by Judge Yelverton for this match between his grandson and namesake and the Paston girl had begun by 1472, and the wedding was eventually celebrated shortly after 16 Nov. 1476, when the manor of ‘Lumnour’ at Caister St. Edmund, belonging to the widowed Margery Yelverton, was set aside for the young couple to inherit after her death. Our MP’s daughter Anne, wife of Thomas Jermy (d.1503), was allotted a reversionary interest in the manor should her brother’s line fail.15 Paston Letters, i. 365, 472, 574; C142/34/32; Vis. Norf. i. 107. As is clear from Margery’s will, her late husband had been buried in the Austin friars’ church in Norwich. The will, made on 4 June 1501, also referred to another daughter, called Ela, and a son John who was a monk. The eldest of Margery and John’s children, the heir William Yelverton, had died only a short while before, leaving a young son and heir also called William (d.1518).16 PCC 13 Holgrave; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 353; C142/34/32.