BATTYSFORD, John, of Chesterton, Cambs.

Descended from a Cambridge burgess family, John resided at nearby Chesterton. VCH Cambs. ix. 15. Nothing is known about either of his parents (although William Battysford, a clerk from Balsham who died in 1430 was perhaps a relative), PCC 13 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 102). or about his career before the first half of 1440, when he replaced Nicholas Hamond as one of the coroners for Cambridgeshire. JUST3/220/3, rots. 93, 101. As coroner, he headed the list of attestors to the county elections for the Parliaments of 1442, 1447 and February 1449. Although not identified as coroner in later returns, he held the office for many decades since he was re-elected coroner at both the Readeption of Henry VI in 1470 and the restoration of Edward IV in 1471. Bottomley, 148.

The county election for the 1442 Parliament took place on 14 Dec. 1441, the day of the formal announcement in the shire court of Battysford’s own election as burgess for Cambridge. Apart from a past family connexion with Cambridge, it is not clear why the townsmen chose him as their representative. He was never involved in the administration of the borough, or any parliamentary election there. This makes him rather unusual, for until the last quarter of the sixteenth century Cambridge burgesses in Parliament were nearly always townsmen. VCH Cambs. iii. 68. One possible reason for his election – given that he became clerk of the Cambridgeshire bench shortly afterwards – is that he had acted for the borough in legal matters. By the early 1460s he was also serving the university, which paid him 15s. 8d. in 1462-3 for his ‘divers expenses and writs’ in a case arising from the spoliation of the university chest. Grace Bk. A, ed. Leathes, 38. But Battysford does not feature in surviving borough treasurers’ accts., which do mention others who acted as counsel: Cambs. Archs., Cambridge bor. recs., City/PB Box X/70/1-10; 71/1-3.

A year after the Parliament of 1442 was dissolved Battysford succeeded Richard Parys as the clerk to the j.p.s in Cambridgeshire, an office he was to hold for over 40 years. The clerk was paid 2s. for each day he attended the quarter sessions, but his continual presence was not required, and Battysford did not frequently attend. One of his busiest periods as clerk was the ten months from July 1445 to May 1446 when he attended the sessions on ten days. E372/288, ‘Item Cant.’, 289, ‘Item Cant. - adhuc res. Som.’, 293, ‘Item Cant.’; E. Stephens, Clerks of Counties, 36. By this stage, he may already have entered the duke of York’s service as bailiff at Litlington, for he was among the duke’s supporters indicted for taking part in the Yorkist conspiracy at Royston in October 1450. KB9/7/1/10. His indictment would appear to have had few repercussions, since he retained his Crown offices, but he took the trouble of securing a pardon in November 1452. C67/40, m. 12. Not long afterwards, Battysford found himself caught up in another controversy, a mysterious case (owing to the lack of background information) that appears to have had no connexion with his service to York. In Hilary term 1454, a case that John Brunne of Willingham, Richard Togood* and two carpenters had brought against him in the court of common pleas reached pleadings. They produced a bond that Battysford had given them at Westminster in mid 1446, in acknowledgement that he owed them £37, and asserted that he still owed them £20 of that sum. Responding by his attorney, Battysford claimed that in fact they had extorted the security from him at Cambridge, while he was a prisoner there of them and their ‘coven’. Both he and the plaintiffs opted for a trial but there is no record on the plea roll that a jury ever considered the matter. CP40/772, rot. 40. Battysford was again a defendant at Westminster (this time in the court of King’s bench) the following decade, when the prior of Ely sued him and his fellow bailiff at Litlington, Simon White, yeoman, in a jurisdictional dispute. KB27/787, rot. 36d; 788, rot. 19d.

It was perhaps by virtue of his offices that contemporaries acknowledged Battysford was a ‘gentleman’, CP40/738, rot. 206; KB9/7/1/10. for he was not a substantial landowner: the commissioners for the subsidy of 1450 estimated his landed income at a mere £11 p.a. E179/81/103. Most of his holdings were in Chesterton, but he might also have possessed property in Hertfordshire when he died. CFR, xxi. no. 717. In a will of 1460 the lawyer John Ansty* called him ‘my pawtener’, although it is not known whether this was a reference to some sort of legal partnership or to the fact that the two men held land jointly of the abbey of Denny. Ansty left Battysford a bequest of a silver ring, as well as a black cloak lined with marten, ‘if Thomas Lokton* does not want it’. Bottomley, 148. The Burgoyne family likewise held Battysford in high regard. Thomas Burgoyne*, a knight of the shire for Cambridgeshire during Battysford’s time in Parliament, made him one of the feoffees for the performance of his will. PCC 21 Stokton (PROB11/4, ff. 161v-162v). This put Battysford to some trouble after Burgoyne’s death in 1470, for the testator’s widow sued the feoffees in Chancery for refusing to support her claim to an advowson at Long Stanton, over which she was at dispute with John Cheyne II*. C1/47/230-2. Earlier, Thomas’s younger brother, William (d.1456), had appointed Battysford as one of his executors, and left a piece of plate to Elizabeth Battysford, perhaps Battysford’s wife or daughter. PCC 15 Stokton (PROB11/4, f. 118). The MP was also on good terms with the likes of Henry Chichele, for whom he was a feoffee of several manors in Wimpole; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 543. Walter Taylard*, who chose him as his executor; PCC 17 Godyn (PROB11/5, f. 130). and Joan Huddlestone (daughter of John Ansty and widow of William Allington†), for whom he was a feoffee of a manor in Hinton. CIPM Hen. VII, i. 1075. It is also possible that Battysford served the bishop of Ely in some capacity, for at the beginning of 1467 he witnessed the grant of a lease of lands made by Bishop Gray. Cambridge Univ. Lib., Ely Diocesan recs. G1/5 (Reg. Gray), ff. 64v-65.

The date of Battysford’s death is uncertain. Writs of diem clausit extremum for a John Battysford were sent to the escheators in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire in April and May 1483, CFR, xxi. nos. 717, 737. The writs could refer to a namesake but, even if so, no inquisitions post mortem have survived. but perhaps mistakenly, since the former MP was still very much alive in mid 1485. E372/332, ‘Cant. Hunt.’. He was perhaps dead by the beginning of the following year, when Nicholas Hughson succeeded him as the justices’ clerk, E372/331, ‘Civit’ Norwyc’, Res’ Cant.’. and certainly so by 1496, when he was named as a deceased feoffee of Henry Chichele. CIPM Hen. VII, i. 543. There is no definite evidence of any surviving family. A ‘Mistress Battesforth’, was living at Girton at the end of 1480, CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 596. but Cecily Battysford of Chesterton, who made her will in 1496, is more likely to have been the MP’s widow. Cambs. Archs., consist. ct. of Ely, reg. CV4, f. 103.} Cecily’s son, William, was one of the witnesses of the will of John Cheyne II. PCC 24 Milles (PROB11/8, f. 190). He left land to Gonville Hall in his own will of 1503, and was buried in the lady chapel of the parish church at Chesterton. PCC 6 Holgrave (PROB11/14, f. 47). His brother, John, died about two years later and was interred beside him. Consist. ct. of Ely, CV4, f. 209d. The Battysfords of Chesterton became extinct in the male line in the mid seventeenth century. VCH Cambs. ix. 15-16.