DARELL, William (d.1450), of Littlecote, Wilts.

William followed the lead of his brother John by seeking their fortunes in the south of England, far from their Yorkshire roots. John, who swiftly established himself in Kent at the turn of the century, benefited from a close and lifelong attachment to Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, whose brother Lord Furnival appointed him his under treasurer of the Exchequer in 1404, The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 753-5. and it was while he was holding this important position and most likely through his influence that William also found employment at this department of central government. There, he received wages for ten years as successively under clerk and then clerk of the receipt, in the period 1405-15. Although at the start of his career he was usually designated ‘of Yorkshire’, CFR, xii. 133; CCR, 1405-9, p. 377. he emulated his brother by building up landed interests in Kent, albeit on a smaller scale. Thus, in 1407 he acquired from God’s House in Ospringe an annual rent of ten marks, CPR, 1408-13, p. 282. and in a series of transactions dating from 1414 he came into possession of the Kentish manor of East Sutton, together with the mill at Keymer in Ockley, across the border with Sussex. In this he was assisted not only by his brother but also by Roger Rye†, both of them officials and associates of the new archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Chichele. The manor and mill, William’s by 1420, were later settled by him in jointure on his wife. Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Filmer mss, U120/T1/1, 9-12, 13/1, 14/1, 18/3, 4; CIMisc. viii. 6; E210/531; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 264-5; E13/135, rots. 19-20. In Kent, too, the Darell brothers attempted to acquire the manors of Mardol and Capel, both of which had allegedly been in the possession of Sir Thomas Shelley† at the time of his execution in 1400. With regard to Mardol, William and his co-feoffees successfully petitioned in 1416 to have it returned to them by the Crown, after their ‘wrongful expulsion’, and John was holding it at the time of his death; CPR, 1416-22, p. 77; CIMisc. vii. 528; SC8/229/11409; Reg. Chichele, ii. 569-71. and although it is uncertain whether Capel was ever effectively in William’s keeping, his sons were to lay claim to the manor in Edward IV’s reign.

While employed at the Exchequer as clerk of the receipt William took advantage of his position to gain the post of joint alnager in London for a two-year term, and from October 1415 he shared the farm of properties in Surrey said to have belonged to the recently-deceased treasurer, the earl of Arundel. CFR, xiv. 119; CPR, 1416-22, pp. 62-63. Not long afterwards, however, he left the Exchequer for the time being, instead busying himself with tasks relating to the administration of Kent and the affairs of the gentry of the county. He had been a mainpernor for those given keeping of lands of a tenant-in-chief there in 1411, CPR, 1408-13, p. 307. attested the parliamentary elections held at Canterbury in the spring of 1416, and later that year took on the duties of sheriff. When his term ended in November 1417 he assumed the post of escheator, while handing over the shrievalty to his brother John. William could be described as ‘esquire of Kent’ as late as 1420, CCR, 1419-22, p. 122. even though while still escheator in Kent and Middlesex he had been called ‘of Wiltshire, gentleman’, CFR, xiv. 256, 278. and it was in the latter county that he took up permanent residence.

Indeed, several years earlier he had begun to establish links with the gentry of Wiltshire, and it was there that he chose to settle. His first recorded links with Wiltshire came in 1410 when he stood surety at the Exchequer for the farmers of a moiety of the de la Roches estates during the minority of John Baynton*, CFR, xiii. 197. and no doubt through his contacts at the Exchequer he learned about a local heiress whose marriage he might acquire. She, the young Elizabeth Calston, was one of the three coheirs of her maternal grandfather Thomas Childrey of Berkshire, former steward of the estates of the bishop of Winchester – the other heirs to the property at the death of Childrey’s widow in 1411 being her aunts Elizabeth, successively wife to Sir John Kingston and William Fynderne*, and Sibyl, who married Thomas Beckingham†. The Childrey inheritance included besides lands in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire, property in the London parishes of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, and St. Mary Woolchurch, which were destined to fall to Elizabeth Calston. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 466, 566-7; iii. 152-3; CIPM, xix. 968-71. Yet of even greater importance to Darell were her prospects of inheriting estates in Wiltshire as sole heir to her father Thomas Calston. On 21 Oct. 1412 he reached a formal agreement with Calston that in return for a payment of £300 the latter would settle on him and Elizabeth when they married his manor of Littlecote and a rent of £5 p.a. in Ebbesborne Wake, to fall in after the deaths of him and his wife Marina, and that Calston would also ensure the couple’s estate in the remainder of the Wiltshire manor of Knighton in Broad Chalke and his house at ‘Beaule’ by Lacock. It was agreed that the wedding would take place before St. Andrew’s day (30 Nov.), and indeed it had done so by 23 Nov. when a settlement of Knighton was duly made in accordance with the agreement. Two days later a similar settlement was made regarding property in Marlborough. C146/2381, 2670, 3575 (the dates given in CAD, ii. C2381, 3575 are incorrect); C148/24; VCH Wilts. xiii. 43. At that time Elizabeth, not quite 12 years old, was still in royal wardship (with regard to her Childrey inheritance), but she made proof of age in January 1415, and later that year Calston settled on her and her issue the reversion of the manor of ‘Beaule’ and lands nearby, guaranteeing that if she died childless the manor would nevertheless remain in the possession of our MP and his family. CIPM, xx. 268; CCR, 1413-19, pp. 291-2. Elizabeth finally came into her share of the former Childrey estates in June 1418, CCR, 1413-19, pp. 469-71; 1422-9, pp. 106-7. She and her husband encountered difficulties at the Exchequer over her inheritance for six years longer: E159/200, brevia Easter rot. 15. and her father died at about the same time. A surviving inventory of Calston’s goods shows he owned a splendid collection of silverware and jewelry worth about £340, E154/1/31. which now passed to his daughter, and a collusive suit between the Darells and Elizabeth’s stepmother Marina gave the couple early possession of Littlecote and £10 annual rent from Little Durnford and Ebbesborne. CAD, v. A13602; Peds. Plea Rolls, ed. Wrottesley, 304. They were less successful regarding £5 p.a. from Little Durnford, which they claimed against Richard Wodhull in 1422: Year Bk. 1 Hen. VI (Selden Soc. l), 58-60.

To this inheritance the Darells made additions by purchasing many other properties in Wiltshire and Berkshire (such as the manor of Thrup in Ramsbury and a lease of another in Kintbury), while consolidating their holdings elsewhere. VCH Wilts. xii. 31; C146/392, 832, 1268; CAD, i. C1416; ii. C2467, 2561. Their acquisitions in the 1420s and 1430s included manors in Enford and Fittleton, VCH Wilts. xi. 121, 144-5; CAD, ii. C2625, 2677; C146/13. The prior of St. Swithun’s Winchester asserted that certain rights in the manors of Coombe and Fittleton had been usurped by the Darells: Harl. roll CC23. as well as ‘Beverisbroke’ and land in Calston, bought from Thomas Cricklade*, C146/1011. and holdings in Collingbourne ‘Valence’ which later came into the possession of one of their sons, Constantine. Wilts. Hist. Centre, Savernake Estate mss, 9/12/6-10. Besides this, Darell acquired land in Dorset at Brockhampton and Gussage All Saints, which he leased out. C146/3586. Throughout this period he zealously pursued suits in the common pleas asserting Elizabeth’s title to land as a descendant of Hildebrand de London or Loundres, who had lived in the early fourteenth century. Thus, they brought pleas against the late Sir William Sturmy*’s feoffees for the manor of Axford, Wiltshire, and property in Heydon, Dorset, and although they were unsuccessful with regard to the latter, the suit over Axford eventually resulted in a satisfactory outcome. Peds. Plea Rolls, 336; VCH Wilts. xii. 49; Wilts. N. and Q. vii. 265; E326/9671; CP40/669, rot. 371. In their bid for yet more land the Darells searched far back in the records. Elizabeth’s great-grandmother Maud de London, had been the wife of one Richard de Combe, and in 1442 the Darells obtained exemplification of a charter and the judgement in an assize dating from the 1280s in favour of one of Combe’s ancestors; CPR, 1441-6, pp. 80-81. furthermore, in 1444, after royal justices and counsel had examined their petition, they secured a rental income of £10 13s. 4d. from ‘Hallynges manor’ and parcels of the manor of Ryme in Dorset. CPR, 1441-6, p. 248; CCR, 1441-7, pp. 183-5; CIMisc. viii. 179.

The process of accumulation of these widespread estates was yet continuing when Darrell made a final concord in 1428. By this his very substantial holdings in five counties were settled on him and his wife in tail male, with remainder to his own issue, to John his brother and his male issue, and finally to William Fynderne and his wife (Elizabeth Darell’s aunt) and their son Thomas Fynderne* for life. Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 429. Although no contemporary assessments of his income have survived, it may be confidently assumed that Darell had become a wealthy man. As such, he was required to take up the order of knighthood (which he nevertheless declined). With land had come standing in Wiltshire, and he was naturally among the gentry of the shire required in 1434 to take the generally administered oath not to maintain law-breakers. CPR, 1429-36, p. 370. A further measure of his status is provided by the papal letters granting him and his wife plenary remission in 1422 and a licence to have a portable altar in 1443. CPL, vii. 321; ix. 364.

Darell’s rise to prominence in Wiltshire may be readily charted from his appointments to royal commissions in the county from 1419, and highlighted by his being pricked as sheriff in November 1420. Furthermore, and most unusually, he was kept on in the post for three consecutive years, contrary to the statutes which strictly limited tenure of a shrievalty to one year at a time. No explanation for this extraordinary state of affairs has been found, nor, conversely, any suggestion that Darell’s successive appointments aroused criticism or local opposition. Given his record of office-holding over the years there can be little doubt that he proved himself to be a competent and able administrator. Shortly after his initial nomination as sheriff of Wiltshire he appeared in Chancery with three other members of the shire gentry to offer mainprise under £200 that they would answer for the issues of the temporalities of Amesbury priory during the vacancy. CCR, 1419-22, pp. 91-92. Another of the sheriff’s duties was to conduct parliamentary elections: Darell presided over five such elections at the shire court at Wilton in a row. Clearly, he had grown to hold a position of considerable influence in the locality.

This influential position was bolstered by Darell’s close links with one of the leading landowners of Wiltshire, Sir Walter Hungerford, later Lord Hungerford, the distinguished diplomat and soldier. Their association dated at least from 1415 (when Hungerford had witnessed the settlement Darell and his wife received from her father), CCR, 1413-19, pp. 291-2. and from 1424 Darell took on the role of a trusted feoffee of Hungerford’s estates. Hungerford Cart. (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xlix), nos. 155-6, 430; CPR, 1422-9, pp. 269, 526; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 400, 418, 420, 433, 445; CCR, 1422-9, pp. 395, 397; 1429-35, pp. 43-44, 50-55; Magdalen Coll. Oxf., Corton mss, 5, 13, 33. Such was Hungerford’s regard for Darell’s abilities that when he was made treasurer of England early in 1426 he chose him to be his under treasurer, keeping him on as his right-hand man for the next six years. Darell was kept busy, for example attending upon business in the vacation of early 1427, and bearing messages between Lord Walter’s home in Wiltshire and the court of the Exchequer at Westminster. E403/677, m. 13; 680, m. 6. Service as a commissioner appointed in July 1427 to inquire into escapes of felons, customs evasions and feudal incidents in four counties, earned him and William Baron*, one of the tellers, a special reward, E403/686, m. 9. and he was well placed to secure grants initiated by the treasurer’s bill. Thus, also in July 1427, he shared with Philip Courtenay* (perhaps already Hungerford’s son-in-law), Simon Sydenham, dean of Salisbury, and Nicholas Radford* the keeping of Eleanor Braybrooke’s portion of the St. Amand estates during her minority, only to relinquish his interest eight months later, at the close of the Parliament of 1427-8. CFR, xv. 175, 223; E159/204, brevia Mich. rot. 30d.

Darell had been returned for Wiltshire to this Parliament, which assembled on 13 Oct. 1427, and while in the Commons he no doubt assisted his master Hungerford by preparing the summaries of Exchequer records to demonstrate the financial state of the realm for presentation to the Lords. While the Parliament was in session he was reappointed sheriff of Wiltshire, so it must be assumed either that he neglected his shrieval duties at least some of the time, or else was occasionally absent from the Lower House. Darell was expected to convey personal messages from the treasurer to other members of the royal council: thus in February 1429 he took letters from Farleigh Hungerford to the duke of Gloucester at Greenwich and to the archbishop of York (the chancellor) at Waltham; and he also delivered messages to the duke of Orléans, a prisoner in Bolingbroke castle in Lincolnshire. In this respect he should be seen as more than a mere messenger: he would have been expected to clarify Hungerford’s views to the recipients. Darell’s position brought him into regular contact with other leading figures at the Exchequer. In April that year he stood surety for two of the barons, and in November he was appointed with Thomas Brown II* to search the cargoes of two Venetian galleys berthed in the port of London for contraband. E403/688, m. 11; 692, m. 10; 693, m. 12; CFR, xv. 263, 299. Meanwhile, in May 1429 when the treasurer Hungerford had entered a series of recognizances amounting to 1,500 marks with Sir William Phelip† and others, Darell had been one of those associated in the transaction. CCR, 1422-9, p. 459. Among the perquisites of office was the wardship of lands belonging to a Yorkshireman, Thomas Duffield, during the minority of his two daughters, which from March 1430 he shared with the earl of Northumberland and others. CFR, xv. 322-3. Naturally enough, while under treasurer he served as a commissioner to raise loans for the Crown, and like other Exchequer officials he himself contributed to such levies, providing two loans of £40 each in June and December 1429, and another of £100 in October 1430. E403/689, m. 10; 692, m. 12; 696, m. 1.

Darell’s second election to Parliament, early in January 1431, took place while he was still acting as Hungerford’s deputy at the Exchequer and at a time when the treasurer still had special powers during the King’s absence in France. He was returned with John Baynton, a fellow member of Hungerford’s circle, and during the parliamentary session he was paid expenses with another of their number, Robert Long*, incurred while the two of them had been conducting inquiries into customs’ offences in Southampton. E403/696, m. 20. On 24 Apr., a month after the session ended, he was listed among the Crown’s creditors who were to be repaid 4,000 marks out of the first moiety of a clerical tenth, granted by convocation in parallel with the subsidies granted by the Commons. CPR, 1429-36, p. 115. Darell continued to take advantage of early notification of wardships falling to the Crown. Thus, on 20 July, just one day after the death of the Berkshire landowner Robert de la Mare†, and long before inquisitions post mortem were held, he and his wife’s uncle William Fynderne obtained custody of de la Mare’s lands during the minority of his infant heir. CFR, xvi. 48; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 687; CIPM, xxiii. 635-6. Following Henry VI’s return from France early in 1432, Darell and other clerks of the Exchequer were in London and Westminster by order of the treasurer, E403/700, m. 14. only for Hungerford to stand down from office in favour of Lord Scrope. Darell himself was replaced as under treasurer by his brother John. Although now removed from the centre of government, he was elected to Parliament for a third time, to the assembly called for 12 May that year.

Darell continued to be active in local government. At the end of the parliamentary session he was appointed to the Wiltshire bench, and later that year he was made sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. He also continued to take an interest in the Crown’s finances, making a further personal loan, this time of 100 marks, in April 1434, and yet another, of £40, in July 1435. In addition, he and his brother John were both put down for loans of £40 in February 1436 to help finance the army about to be sent over to France. He served on the loan commission in Wiltshire in March 1439. E403/715, m. 4; 725, m. 8; CPR, 1429-36, p. 466; 1436-41, p. 250; PPC, iv. 327. A pardon he acquired meanwhile on 9 July 1437, after the King attained his majority, proved useful in helping to tidy up his personal affairs and to settle outstanding matters at the Exchequer. C67/38, m. 9.

In the course of his career Darell had come into contact with prominent figures both in the city of London, such as the mercer William Estfield*, and in the localities, such as Robert Andrew*, Robert Long and William Danvers*, for all of whom he agreed to act as a feoffee. CPR, 1416-22, p. 180; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 379, 392, 414, 416, 422, 461; Magdalen Coll., Stainswyke deeds, 10; C146/887; CCR, 1435-41, p. 245. In a similar capacity he supported his Exchequer colleague Thomas Brown with regard to his landed acquisitions in Kent. CCR, 1422-9, pp. 445-6, 451, 467-8; 1429-35, p. 350. Of greater significance may be his involvement in 1431 in the affairs of Richard, earl of Salisbury (son of his brother’s earliest patron) and his countess Alice, for he was among the trustees of certain estates set aside to ensure payments to the executors of Alice’s father, Earl Thomas, and to provide for the couple’s children while her husband was overseas. CPR, 1429-36, pp. 122-3, 598; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 467. Thomas Polton, bishop of Worcester (who was to die while attending the Council of Basel in 1433), regarded our MP as one of his dearest friends and confidants, and asked him to oversee the administration of his will, in which he was left the sum of £20. Reg. Chichele, ii. 493-4.

Family matters also preoccupied him. His brother John died in October 1438, having named him as an executor and allotted him a remainder interest in certain of his estates, settled in tail-male on his three sons. The executors were instructed to sell property in the London parish of St. John the Baptist, Walbrook, for the benefit of John’s soul, and in the following year William released to his oldest nephew and namesake land pertaining to the young man’s maternal inheritance. Ibid., 569-71; C146/3341. For several years our MP and his wife had held the manor of Edgware, Middlesex, by grant of Richard, Lord Strange of Knockin, but in 1441 they conveyed it to the trustees of All Souls College, Oxford, founded by Archbishop Chichele, whom John Darell had served as steward and whose niece was John’s widow. Cat. Archs. All Souls Coll. ed. Martin, 35; CPR, 1441-6, pp. 19-20.

Yet, save for his sporadic service on the Wiltshire bench, Darell took little part in local government in the 1440s. Furthermore he ceased to be an intimate member of the circle of Lord Hungerford, who did not mention him in his will of 1449. Lambeth Palace Lib., Reg. Stafford, ff. 114-18. In March 1450 our MP and his wife made a settlement on one of their younger sons, Richard, of the manor of East Sutton in Kent and their Sussex properties, Filmer mss, 14/1, 15. Sir Richard was to sell this inheritance for 560 marks in 1478: CAD, vi. C6534; Peds. Plea Rolls, 449. and on the following 7 Oct. he arbitrated in a dispute at Faversham between his old colleague Thomas Brown and John Thornbury*. CP40/770, rots. 137, 139. This was his final public act. He died before February 1451, and it was as his widow that Elizabeth was called before commissioners in Wiltshire to be assessed for contribution to the parliamentary subsidy granted the previous year. E179/196/118. She failed to appear to make account. A month later the treasurer, Lord Beauchamp of Powick, on examining a schedule regarding payments made from the Exchequer in the past found that a prest for £51 12s. 11d., given to Darell when under treasurer many years earlier had not been properly accounted for. Elizabeth and Darell’s son and heir, George, summoned to answer for the discrepancy during Michaelmas term, produced the wide-ranging pardon granted to our MP in 1437 and enrolled in the Exchequer three years later, which exonerated him from all such debts. E159/228, recorda Mich. rots. 64-64d. Perhaps because most of his property was held jointly with his wife, no writs for a post mortem were issued. A large tomb made of Purbeck marble erected in the Darell chapel in Ramsbury church in the mid fifteenth century, is thought to have been built for him and his wife. E. Kite, Wilts. Brasses, 11.

In accordance with their status, all three of Darell’s daughters married heirs to substantial estates. Before his death Jane had been matched with John Wroughton*, who represented Wiltshire in the Parliament of 1455; Genealogist, n.s. xiii. 90. while Florence was wedded by February 1453 to Thomas Brydges*, son and heir of Giles Brydges* of Coberley, Gloucestershire; C146/744; SP46/45, f. 65. and Alison married John Kirkby (d.1469), son and heir of John Kirkby† (d.1424), of Romsey, Hampshire, and West Harnham, Wiltshire. Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 236; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 521-2. The widowed and aged Elizabeth Darell did not marry again. In 1456 she leased to a London haberdasher her buildings in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, which with her other properties in the capital produced a rental of as much as £20 p.a., and two years later she and her son Richard exchanged some land in Ramsbury with Bishop Beauchamp of Salisbury, to enable him to enlarge his park. CAD, i. C246, 410; CPR, 1452-61, p. 471. Richard was to make a prestigious match by taking to wife Margaret Beaufort, daughter of Edmund, duke of Somerset, and widow of Humphrey, earl of Stafford (d.1455), whom he placed in his mother’s household at Littlecote. Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. n.s. iv. 141. Our MP’s widow made her will in March 1464, asking to be buried in the Minories in London if she died there, or in Salisbury cathedral should she die at Littlecote. (If indeed it is her tomb at Ramsbury, then her wishes were not respected.) She left George Darell, her eldest son, livestock grazing at Knighton and Littlecote, as well as a considerable amount of silver plate, including two pots engraved with the arms of her late kinsman Sir Laurence St. Martin†, and the furnishings of the two ‘great chambers’. Another son, Alexander, was to have plate worth £100, and a third, Thomas, 200 marks in coin and plate; while her grandson John Brydges was bequeathed 20 marks for his schooling. Money was left to provide prayers for her late husband’s soul. PCC 4 Godyn (PROB11/5, ff. 31v-32).

Darell’s heir George, by then aged over 30, CFR, xx. 126, 141, 142; CCR, 1461-8, p. 223; C140/12/13. had been retained for life by Richard, duke of York, in January 1453, and his promise to do the duke true and faithful service against ‘all erthly creatures of what estate, preeminence or condicion soo evere thay bee next the kyng and his issue’, C146/6400. stood him in good stead when Edward IV came to the throne: he was promoted to be keeper of the great wardrobe and subsequently knighted. Sir George and his four brothers revived their late father’s claim to the manor of Capel in Kent, which they contended was wrongly granted to their cousin William in 1464. They asserted that their father had been unjustly expelled from Capel some 50 years earlier, and a commission of inquiry set up in February 1468 found in their favour. Even so, the King’s attorney contested the findings, and the matter continued undecided for several months more. CPR, 1467-77, pp. 70-71; CIMisc. viii. 398; Archaeologia Cantiana, xxxvi. 138-9. Sir George died in 1474, leaving a young son, Edward, to continue the main family line. CAD, vi. 5200, 5696; CCR, 1476-85, nos. 173-4; The Commons 1509-58, ii. 18-19.