The Colmans were a family of tanners persistently involved in disorder. Robert first appears in the records in 1427 when fined 40d. before the Derbyshire j.p.s for an unknown offence. Fined along with him were Richard and William Colman, and on the evidence of indictments taken before commissioners of oyer and terminer in 1434 all three of them were members of the violent confederacy formed by Nicholas Meysham* in 1430. Our MP’s return to Parliament at the election held in March 1432, in company with another of Meysham’s allies, William Orme*, thus came at a time when the townsmen were riven by faction.
In Hilary term 1435 Robert and William Colman appeared personally in the court of King’s bench to plead not guilty to involvement with Meysham. They were acquitted in the following Michaelmas term by a jury from Derby. Significantly, even though the case had been put out nisi prius to the Derbyshire assizes, the jury appeared at Westminster, and it is a reasonable inference that the defendants had successfully argued that they would not receive a fair trial in the town. Our MP was also called upon to answer the appeal of Isabel Gomon as one of the accessories to her husband’s murder, but she quickly defaulted, presumably after the defendants had compounded with her for damages, and acquittal on the King’s suit followed. Colman was thus left only with the indictment for receiving livery pending against him. In Easter term 1435 he claimed that he was one of Grey’s household servants and hence entitled to take livery. No verdict is given. Nothing else is recorded about our MP after this date. The family did, however, maintain its connexion with Lord Grey for William Colman was among the many of his servants indicted when oyer and terminer commissioners again visited Derbyshire in 1440.