HETHER, William, of Derby.

This MP poses a slight problem of identification. No indenture survives to record the Derby election of 1460, but the names of those elected are recorded in a schedule listing the men returned for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The surname of the second representative for Derby is partially obscured but the most likely reading is ‘Hatter’. C219/16/6. If this is correct then the MP does not appear in the surviving records, for he is certainly to be distinguished from the London mercer of the same name. Bef. 1457 a William Hatter leased property at Braunstone near Leicester from Sir Thomas Erdington*, but there is no reason to suppose that he was our MP: Leics. RO, Winstanley of Braunstone mss, DG5/2. However, if the name was intended to be ‘Hether’, then the MP was a barker (or tanner) of Derby who attested the preceding parliamentary election for the borough in November 1459 and was to be elected as one of the town bailiffs in 1461. C219/16/5; CP40/765, rot. 79d. He is, in turn, to be distinguished from the William Hether who was a purveyor for the Household in the 1450s. This identification receives strong support from the political circumstances of the 1460 election. The Yorkists were in the ascendant and the leading Yorkist in Derbyshire, Walter Blount*, was returned to represent the county along with his friend, (Sir) John Gresley*. John Brydde*, returned for the borough, was also a supporter of York and an associate of Blount. In view of Blount’s influence over the representation of Derby, it is likely that the other borough MP is to be placed in the same category, and this gives added significance to two actions pending in the court of King’s bench at the time the elections were made. In both, the one of conspiracy and the other of maintenance, William Hether was a co-defendant with Blount and several lesser men. In short, there can be little doubt that he was the MP. KB27/790, rot. 106.

Little else is known of Hether’s career. He cannot have been a young man when elected, for as early as 1436 he had been sued for debt by one of the leading townsmen, John Booth*; and later, in Hilary term 1451, Ralph, Lord Cromwell, brought an action against him for £5. CP40/702, rot. 354; 760, rot. 249. More significantly, soon after he was one of several townsmen, including Elias Tyldesley*, Thomas Bradshaw* and John Spicer*, involved in offences against the town’s neighbour, the abbey of Darley. According to bills laid before the justices of oyer and terminer who came to Derby in September 1454, he was among a riotous assembly of 200 townsmen, who on 24 May 1452 broke the closes of the abbey at Little Darley and Little Chester, and, through threats and assault against various monks and servants of the abbey, prevented the holding of religious services there for four days. Similarly, on 12 Nov. 1453 Hether was one of a smaller group of 30 townsmen, who, despite receiving writs of subpoena to appear before King and council at Westminster (presumably to answer for the earlier offence), broke a close of the abbot in Derby. On the following day he was among those responsible for ringing the bells of the church of All Saints, ‘discordie videlicet Awkewardly’, as a signal for the gathering of an armed band of 300 men which then went to throw down the close and hedges of the abbey at Little Darley. Like those indicted with him he was able to put himself back on the right side of the law on payment of a small fine. He was dead by Michaelmas term 1466 when Thomas and John Hether, both tanners, brought an action as executors of his will. KB9/12/1/1-3; CP40/821, rot. 207d.