CONSELL, Nicholas, of Guildford, Surr.

Consell he was possibly related to the family of that name which was established in Borden and Boxley in Kent in the 1390s, CAD, i. B799; iii. D835. although little is known of him before his election to Parliament, which clearly took place at an early point in his career. Even so, by 1434 he was sufficiently well established in Surrey to be asked to witness a deed by Thomas Palshude* and his wife. CCR, 1429-35, p. 303. The Palshudes lived in Guildford, and it may be assumed that Consell had also taken up residence in the town by that date.

Although notaries were rarely elected to Parliament, Consell is almost certainly to be identified with the notary public who in February 1441 heard a declaration regarding the lands of Sir John Fastolf. A.R. Smith, ‘Sir John Fastolf’ (Oxf. Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1982), 187 (citing Magdalen Coll. Oxf., Spitlings deeds, 10). He was returned to Parliament at the end of that year. In December 1446 he was one of the recipients of the goods and chattels of John Derby of Southwark, CCR, 1441-7, p. 463. and his developing career as a lawyer led to his involvement in a number of transactions in the locality of his home, notably as a feoffee for Guildford men such as Peter Norbridge and Henry Fraunceys*, and as an executor for William Skerne of Kingston-upon-Thames (nephew of Robert Skerne*). CP25(1)/232/73/15, 29, 34; CP40/829, rot. 539. While living in Guildford he attested the county election in February 1453. C219/16/2.

By December 1465 Consell, again described as a notary public, had come to the notice of the abbot and convent of Chertsey abbey who appointed him as proctor. One of his assignments involved the appropriation of the parish church of Cobham to the abbey. Chertsey Carts. ed. Jenkinson, i. 103-4. He attested the borough election to Parliament held at Guildford in September 1472, C219/17/2. and two years later he was elected mayor of the town. The Richard Consell who was active there in the 1460s may have been a son of his. CFR, xx. 181. The MP was dead by the autumn of 1481 when his executor, Henry Norbridge, was involved in a dispute with the widow of John Martyn, a London tailor, over a debt of 40 marks. This had originally been incurrred by Henry Fraunceys who, probably in 1461 or 1462, had been imprisoned in Guildford castle at Martyn’s suit. Consell successsfuly secured his release but only, it was subsequently claimed, after he had bought a tenement from Fraunceys for 40 marks and taken over the debt himself. In her petition Martyn’s widow, Eleanor John, claimed that the money was still owing and should be paid back using the proceeds of the sale of the tenement which, she asserted, Fraunceys had conveyed to Consell for that purpose. Norbridge disagreed and argued that the debt was already settled, that the sale of the tenement had raised only £10, not the 40 marks claimed by Eleanor, and finally that Consell’s moveable goods were insufficient to meet the alleged shortfall. C1/62/281-3.