CORBYN, John, of Morfe or Kingswinford, Staffs.

Corbyn poses problems of identification. One candidate is the probable son and heir of Henry Corbyn, a tax collector in Staffordshire in 1380 and 1404. CFR, ix. 226; xii. 284. Tellingly for their identification as father and son, Henry Corbyn was associated with Henry Morfe of Morfe near Enville, who, by Easter 1410, had become this John’s father-in-law. Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xi. 220. Henry Corbyn’s relationship with Henry Morfe dated back to 1384: Salop RO, Brooke pprs. 5735/2/23/1/6. In about 1410 John and his wife, Katherine Morfe, complained to the chancellor that her father, after conveying livery of seisin to her in the manor of Morfe, ousted her and gave the manor to the powerful Sir Humphrey Stafford* (d.1442). Now, having in turn ousted Stafford, the couple were themselves put out, and found themselves, so they claimed, without remedy at common law because the witnesses to the livery of seisin, among whom was John’s putative father, dared not attest to the fact. Whether this petition brought them redress is not known, but Stafford’s move to Dorset at about this date probably allowed them to recover possession. A final concord levied in November 1411 may mark their restoration: they remitted their right in the manor to lesser gentry neighbours, Edmund atte Lowe, Richard Leveson and Nicholas Russell. C1/16/44; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xi. 220.

Since the manor of Morfe lay only a few miles from Bridgnorth, it is very tempting to conclude that this John was the MP for the borough in 1431. Yet it is not certain that the John Corbyn of 1411 was the same man who emerges again in the records in the late 1420s. By then another John was active, the son and heir of William Corbyn of Kingswinford, very near Morfe. Both William and this John were named in 1434 among those Staffordshire men to be sworn to the general oath against peace-breakers. This younger John was active by 1430 when joint plaintiff with the prior of St. James, Dudley, in a plea of debt. CPR, 1429-36, p. 400; CP40/678, rot. 247d. Thus it could have been either of the Johns who was the MP of 1431. All that can safely be said is that the few references to John Corbyn either side of this date seem to describe a single coherent career. In the spring of 1428 his important neighbour, Sir John Sutton of Dudley, newly-appointed as the royal lieutenant in Ireland, nominated him to attend to his matters in England during his absence. This suggests that our MP had a training in the law, an impression strengthened by the fact that others beyond Sutton employed him. In November 1430, described as ‘of the county of Stafford, gentleman’, he offered surety for a royal grant made to the Staffordshire esquire John Hampton II*, usher of the King’s chamber. CPR, 1422-9, p. 465; CFR, xvi. 10. Soon afterwards he was returned to represent Bridgnorth in Shropshire, not far distant from either Morfe or Kingswinford. His connexion with the borough was seemingly remote, the most that can be said from the documented evidence is that he may have had a kinship tie by marriage with Richard Blyke*, the most important of the borough’s residents. Blyke’s aunt, Elizabeth Fililode, had, long before, married one Thomas Corbyn. C219/14/2; CP25(1)/294/75/38. It may be significant that Henry Corbyn is found in association with the Fililodes in the 1380s: CFR, x. 166; CPR, 1385-9, p. 321. This would slightly favour the MP’s identification with John of Morfe.

Corbyn’s parliamentary service marked the pinnacle of his modest career, even if, while an MP, he had the embarrassment of appearing in Chancery to confess that he had lost a writ of diem clausit extremum entrusted to him for delivery to the escheator of Staffordshire. CFR, xvi. 35; CIPM, xxiii. 497-8. He makes only two further appearances in the records after the end of the Parliament: in November 1431 he offered mainprise in a royal grant made to Sutton, and, as mentioned above, he was named in the peace list of 1434. CFR, xvi. 77. Whether resident at Morfe or Kingswinford no more is known of him, although Nicholas Corbyn, who served as bailiff of Bridgnorth in 1501, may have been his descendant. Salop RO, Bridgnorth bor. recs., ct. leet bk. BB/F//1/1/1, f. 71.