ASH, John I

It was not noted in the earlier biography, The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 65-66. that Ash’s return to the Commons in 1420 was probably not his first contact with Parliament, for he may have been the John Ash ‘of Devon’ who at some point in Henry IV’s reign petitioned King and lords to be pardoned a forfeiture to Richard II, for which he was surety. SC8/90/4473. About the same time he was squabbling with the north Devon landowner Walter Barry* over property in Morchard Bishop. Ash petitioned Archbishop Arundel, then chancellor, for redress, but evidently left little to chance, for his sureties were the important lawyers John Copplestone the elder and Richard Raymond†. C1/16/84.

Ash’s father had served Sir John Pomeroy† as his receiver in the 1380s and 1390s, and the son was for many years also to maintain close ties with the Pomeroys. Devon RO, Seymour mss, 3799M-0/M/1/2. Thus, he was prominent among the feoffees of Edward Pomeroy† from the latter years of Henry IV onwards, CPR, 1441-6, p. 329; CIPM, xxvi. 417; C140/1/11, m. 2; E159/206, brevia Easter rot. 10; Seymour mss, 3799M-0/ET/2/24, 23/8. and in April 1428 he headed the arbiters who mediated between Pomeroy and John Cole I* in their acrimonious dispute over the Pomeroy seat of Berry, which earlier that month had purportedly seen Edward and his wife and children expelled from their manor house in their undergarments or entirely naked, while some of their less fortunate female servants were thrown out of the windows of the building. KB27/670, rex rot. 19.

Perhaps through his connexion with Thomas Raymond†, the recorder of Exeter, Ash joined the ranks of the city’s legal advisors. By 1419 he was annually paid a reward of 13s. 4d., and from 1437 this was formally included among the pensions paid by the city receiver as a matter of course. Periodically, he also received additional marks of favour, such as gifts of wine, from the citizens and in 1433-4 he was granted a livery of bread similar to that given to former mayors of the city. Devon RO, Exeter receivers’ accts. 7 Hen. V-26 Hen. VI. It is clear that the recipient of these fees and gifts was the MP, rather than his namesake, a contemporary Exeter butcher with a shop near the entrance to the city shambles. The latter served as warden of the shambles in 1419-20, 1428-29, and 1432-3, was among the citizens electing the senior city officers in the years 1423-7, 1430 and 1432, and acted as a member of the council of 12 in 1426-7: Exeter mayors’ ct. rolls 7-8 Hen. V, 2-8, 9-10, 11-12 Hen. VI; receiver’s acct. 6-7 Hen. VI, m. 1; KB27/670, rots. 55d, 69; 675, rot. 22d; C1/38/291; Add. Ch. 27620.

Ash had entered Cardinal Beaufort’s service some time before 4 May 1428, when on the eve of his departure for France the cardinal appointed him alongside his steward Richard Wyot* as his attorney to handle his affairs in the law-courts during his absence. E159/204, recorda Easter rot. 2d.

It is probable that it was the law that drew Ash to London, and he evidently made his mark among the members of his profession, for it is likely that it was he who in 1438 was offered the recordership of the city in succession to Alexander Anne*, but turned it down. N.L. Ramsay, ‘The English Legal Profession’ (Cambridge Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1985), p. xlvii; C.M. Barron, ‘Govt. of London’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1970), 113.

Ash is last recorded when appointed a member of a commission de mutuo faciendo in Middlesex in June 1446, and probably died not long thereafter, for that autumn the pension of 13s. 4d. which he had annually received from the citizens of Exeter, was discontinued. CPR, 1441-6, p. 431; Exeter receivers’ accts. 24-26 Hen. VI.