HIBERDEN, William, of Suss.

This MP’s unusual family-name may have been derived from the place in Madehurst in west Sussex, a few miles from Arundel. Two members of the family made their mark in the locality: another William Hiberden, who entered the Church, attracted royal patronage and was presented by Henry VI to the free chapel of Holy Cross in the parish church of Bignor in 1440; Reg. Praty (Suss. Rec. Soc. iv), 148-9; CCR, 1435-41, p. 388; CPR, 1436-41, p. 427. while our MP’s father, Robert, emerged as a relatively prominent figure in the same part of the county, and known to its leading landowners. Robert may have sometimes lived at Midhurst, the borough which his son was later to represent in Parliament, for in 1430 he witnessed an important grant made there by the lord of the borough, Sir John Bohun. Add. Ch. 20114; CPR, 1429-36, p. 372. In the same year he was employed by John, earl of Arundel, as an attorney to deliver seisin to feoffees of a number of his manors in Sussex, not long after he had been responsible for transferring that of Stopham to one of the earl’s retainers, and in 1435 he served as a juror at the local inquisition post mortem following Arundel’s death. CIPM, xxiv. 377. Described as a ‘literate man’ of the diocese of Chichester, Robert witnessed the election of a new prior at the Benedictine house at Boxgrove in October 1438. He evidently held property close by, for he was called ‘of Boxgrove’ when he stood surety in Chancery two years later. Robert also came to the attention of the diocesan, Bishop Adam Moleyns, the keeper of the privy seal, who at some point before his violent death in January 1450 named him as a feoffee of land near the coast at Sidlesham. CCR, 1454-61, p. 383. He was of sufficient standing to be named as an attestor of the elections of knights of the shire on the parliamentary indentures of 1422, 1425, November 1449, 1450 and 1460. C219/13/1, 3; 15/7; 16/1, 6.

It is therefore curious that it was not Robert Hiberden, a person of some consequence in the locality, but rather his son William who was elected to the Commons. The latter is first mentioned in December 1456, as a beneficiary of the will of his uncle John; a bequest of four marks was to be shared between him and younger siblings, although he was to have the largest part. PCC 7 Stockton (PROB11/4, f. 52). As already noted, at the time of his election to Parliament nearly four years later his father was present at the shire court at Chichester to attest the indenture for the county, and it may be speculated that he also participated in the selection of the representatives for Midhurst, promoting his son. William himself has only been traced in the records on one other occasion, when he was listed as an attestor of the Sussex elections conducted on 24 Dec. 1477. C219/17/3. Presumably by that date he had inherited his patrimony.