ANDREW, Robert

To add to the information in the earlier biography, The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 35-38. it should be noted that Andrew took out a royal pardon, as ‘of Blunsdon St. Andrew’, on 1 July 1415, when preparations for Henry V’s invasion of France were well under way. C67/37, m. 35. Most likely he himself remained at home, along with Hugh Mortimer†, the chamberlain of the duchy of Lancaster, who had named him as an executor earlier that year. Mortimer died in 1416, while serving as treasurer of England. One of Andrew’s co-executors was John Wilcotes†, receiver-general of the duchy of Cornwall, for whom he stood surety at the Exchequer at a later date. Accordingly, in February 1425, after Wilcotes’s death, he was required by the Exchequer to account for the issues of lands in Oxfordshire which he had held at farm. E159/201, brevia Hil. rot. 10. To the many tasks noted in the earlier biography which Andrew performed on behalf of Richard, earl of Warwick, should be added the times he received assignments in the Exchequer on the earl’s behalf. For example, in 1429 he collected tallies for payments to Warwick as Henry VI’s tutor, and in 1431 for his attendance on the King in France. E403/689, m. 9; 698, m. 3.

In 1434 Andrew was associated with Guy Whittington*, the sheriff of Gloucestershire, and his friend John Throckmorton I* in bringing an assize of novel disseisin regarding property in Siston against Sir Maurice Berkeley I*, C66/435, rot. 17d. although it is unlikely that his was the principal interest at stake. A few days before his death, he received another pardon, issued on 27 Mar. 1437 and covering any debts incurred before the date of the King’s coronation (in 1429), and specifically referring to his executorship of Hugh Mortimer’s will. The pardon was enrolled at the Exchequer, for his protection against the processes of that court. C67/38, m. 29; E159/213, brevia Easter rot. 19d.

Andrew died childless. It was left to his widow Agnes to arrange the marriage of her son and heir Thomas Winslow I* to one of the daughters of John Throckmorton, her fellow executor of Andrew’s will. The marriage had probably been approved by Andrew before his death. More troublesome to Agnes was a Chancery suit brought against her by the dean and college of St. George, Windsor. For many years (at least from 1422) her husband had been the farmer of the estate owned by the college at Ogbourne St. George, Wiltshire, but had died allegedly owing the college nearly £84. He had apparently instructed his widow to sell certain lands in order to satisfy the debt, but she had failed to do so. St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, recs. XV.48.7, 12; C1/38/228. By 1441 the debt had increased to more than £98: CP40/721, rot. 53. In 1439 Elizabeth Blaket (the widow of William Wilcotes† and Sir John Blaket†) brought an action against Agnes in the common pleas for illegal detention of an extremely valuable book, worth as much as £40, and at the same time she was being sued there by the widow of Sir William Porter† for a debt of £9. Even more seriously, members of the Coventre family of Devizes alleged that she owed them 100 marks. CP40/715, rots. 22d, 263; 721, rot. 53; 724, rot. 49. During Andrew’s last Parliament, in July 1433, he had entered a bond in 40 marks to the clerk of the Parliaments, John Frank, which he had failed to honour. Frank’s executors pursued Agnes in the law-courts in the Hilary term of 1442. One way out of her financial difficulties was to relinquish her life-interest in her late husband’s estates. On 27 Nov. that year she brought two deeds into King’s bench for enrolment on the plea roll. By these transactions, dated earlier the same month, she had transferred her estate for life in the manors of Blunsdon St. Andrew and Blunsdon ‘Gay’ to Bishop Stafford of Bath and Wells, the chancellor, who already held the reversionary interest. CP40/724, rot. 476; KB27/726, rots. 68d, 72. Stafford had been named as supervisor of Andrew’s will, but whether the testator had sold or given these manors to him is unclear.