ERNELEY, John (d.c.1453), of Earnley in Sidlesham, Suss. and Yatesbury, Wilts.

The family of Erneley had been in possession of the Sussex manor from which it derived its name since the late twelfth century, and one of its members, Sir John de Erneley, had represented the county in three Parliaments of the early fourteenth century, as well as serving as a Sussex coroner in the 1340s. Suss. Arch. Collns. xcviii. 59-60. Our MP’s father, William, received seisin of Earnley in jointure with his wife Isabel in 1406, Wilts. Hist. Centre, Money-Kyrle mss, 1720/229 (printed in HMC Var. iv. 120, 123). and the manor together with appurtenances nearby had an estimated worth of £22 13s. 4d. p.a., as assessed for the purposes of taxation in 1412. William or his feoffees continued to hold it until his death some 36 years later. Feudal Aids, v. 155; vi. 522; CP40/658, rot. 215. Although William was a prominent figure in the locality and attested the shire elections to no fewer than nine Parliaments between 1417 and 1447, C219/12/2, 5, 6, 13/1, 5, 14/1, 2, 4, 15/4. he himself seems never to have been returned to the Commons. He died before Easter term 1449, for it was then that, as his executors, our MP and his wife brought actions in the court of common pleas, suing a man from Chichester and two merchants from Portsmouth for debts amounting to £21 owing to his estate. CP40/753, rots. 45d, 46d.

It is doubtful that John was ever resident on the family manor of Earnley for long, although his widow is known to have lived there. Rather, his holdings in Wiltshire were the focus of his interests, especially in the early stages of his career. His father held lands in Yatesbury, to the east of Calne, and in 1423 the manors of Yatesbury and Poulshot were settled on John (while still a minor), with remainder, should his issue fail, to their kinsman Ralph Thorpe of Boscombe, esquire. Perhaps through his mother’s family, John could claim title to the Thorpe manors of ‘Burdon’s Ball’ in Wiltshire, ‘Burdonswere’ in Devon and Oldbury in Gloucestershire, but in November that same year his father entered a bond in 100 marks to Thorpe guaranteeing that when John came of age he would confirm the latter and his heirs in their possession of these estates, which Thorpe had recently inherited. Feudal Aids, v. 247; Money-Kyrle mss, 1081/12, 1720/246, 247; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 600-1; CIPM, xxi. 929. Erneley’s mother came from a cadet branch of the prominent Wiltshire family of Worfton or Wroughton, and in 1418 she had been entrusted by her grandmother Isabel, widow of William Worfton (d.1393), with a pyx containing title deeds regarding the widow’s inheritance. This pyx came into our MP’s keeping in July 1426, after his mother’s death, but his right of possession was challenged in the early 1430s by the guardian of the young John Wroughton* (Isabel’s great-grandson), who demanded the return of the muniments and damages of £200. At the same time Erneley brought suits in the common pleas against John Wroughton’s mother, claiming title to land in Broad Hinton and West Kennett by virtue of an entail of 1375, but with what success does not appear. CP40/679, att. rot.; 685, att. rot.; 688, rots. 420d, 473.

At the time of this litigation Erneley, described as a ‘gentleman’, was said to be living at Bourton near Bishops Cannings in Wiltshire, and his links with the county were further reinforced by his marriage, which gave him an interest in the manor of Winterbourne Bassett (his widow and son were to lease out a messuage there, called ‘Bydes’, for £5 p.a.). Wilts. Arch. Mag. ii. 270-1; Money-Kyrle mss, 1720/279 (HMC Var. iv. 124). His wife was a descendant of the Malwyn family of Etchilhampton, and although he himself never actually held the manor of Etchilhampton his grandson and namesake, the judge, was eventually to inherit it after the death of Henry Long* of Wraxall, to whom it pertained jure uxoris. VCH Wilts. x. 72-73. That Erneley was counted among the gentry of Wiltshire is clear from the fact that he attested the county elections held at Wilton for the Parliaments of 1431 and 1435. C219/14/2, 5.

Yet even before his father’s death John pursued his interests in Sussex. He became embroiled in a dispute with Richard Forster III* of Bray and his wife Joan, who in July 1446 arrayed an assize of novel disseisin against him with regard to property on the coast at East Wittering. Erneley and Forster entered mutual bonds in £200 to accept the award of the local lawyers William Sydney* and Edmund Mille*, but when Forster allegedly broke the agreement Erneley sued him under the terms of the bond in the Easter and Trinity terms of 1449. In pleadings in Michaelmas term 1450 Forster claimed that the arbiters, meeting on 22 July 1446, had awarded the disputed property to him, in right of his wife, provided that they paid Erneley £40 and permitted him to lease the land for the next 14 months. Erneley contended that this award had been superseded by another made three months later, that Forster had failed to keep the terms of the latter, and furthermore still owed him a portion of the £40. C66/462, m. 5d; CP40/753, rot. 46; 754, rot. 58d; 756, rot. 310; 759, rot. 384. While the suit was in progress, Erneley had been elected to the second Parliament of 1449 as a representative of the Wiltshire borough of Ludgershall. No trace of any connexion between him and the burgesses has been discovered, although as a landowner in Wiltshire he was certainly no stranger to the locality.

Erneley died before Hilary term 1454, by which time his widow had married, as his third wife, John Michelgrove*, the former shire-knight for Sussex. CP40/772, rot. 28. In October 1457 our MP’s son and heir, also called John, confirmed the couple and their co-feoffees in possession of the manor of Earnley and all of our MP’s other lands in Sussex and Wiltshire, with the exception of the manor of Poulshot. Money Kyrle mss, 1720/278. This deed was wrongly dated 6 Hen. VI instead of 36 Hen. VI in HMC Var. iv. 121. The younger John took a more prominent part in Sussex affairs than his father. Perhaps a lawyer by training, he was appointed to the bench in September 1460, attested the electoral indentures for the Parliament assembled a month later, and provided assistance to the influential Thomas Hoo II* in many of the latter’s complex transactions. CP25(1)/241/91/19; CCR, 1461-8, pp. 382-4; CPR, 1461-7, pp. 429, 493; C219/16/6. In 1458 he was a co-feoffee with Hoo of the former Poynings estates held by Henry, earl of Northumberland: C67/42, m. 4. He and his mother, widowed for a second time in 1459, were godparents to John Michelgrove’s grand-daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, who was born at their manor-house in Earnley in March 1461. Suss. Arch. Collns. xii. 44. John, who made his will on 2 Oct. 1465, was buried in Sidlesham parish church. A prosperous esquire, he was able to leave his wife Margaret £100, a like sum to his son Humphrey (then still a minor) and 100 marks to his daughter Anne for her marriage. Margaret was to keep Earnley for life in full satisfaction of her dower, and to receive the issues of lands in Angmering until Humphrey came of age, PCC 10 Godyn (PROB11/5, f. 78v). Margaret was a da. of Nicholas Morley* by Joan, da. and coh. of John Waleys of Glynde: Cat. Glynde Place Archs. ed. Dell, ped. aft. p. xviii. and this settlement was confirmed after she married John Lunsford. Money-Kyrle mss, 1720/287 (HMC Var. iv. 125). It would seem that Humphrey died without issue, and by 1479 claimants to the Earnley estate had appeared in the persons of John Clerkson and John Jugler. CP40/870, rot. 306; VCH Suss. iv. 202. They proved successful in their claim to land in Sidlesham against the defendant, another John Erneley (our MP’s grandson), who in 1480 also relinquished to them the manor of Earnley. This same John was found in 1490 to be the heir of the manor of Etchilhampton, as kinsman of Joan Malwyn (d.1468/9), the former wife of Henry Long. Money-Kyrle mss, 1720/295 (HMC Var. iv. 125); CIPM Hen. VII, i. 657. Long’s w. Joan Malwyn was a first cousin of our MP’s w. He, a fellow of Grey’s Inn, went on to become attorney-general under Henry VII and chief justice of the common pleas in 1519, shortly before his death.