IWODE, Adam (d.1450), of Warbleton, Suss.

The family of Iwode took its name from an estate in Warbleton in east Sussex which is first mentioned in the records in 1324; VCH Suss. ix. 208. and Adam may have been the son of John Iwode of Warbleton, who although appointed a collector of parliamentary subsidies in the county in 1392 was otherwise obscure. CPR, 1391-6, p. 394. Very little is recorded about the MP’s property. In 1414 he received a rental income from the manor of Haselden in Dallington, which belonged to the priory of the Holy Trinity in Hastings, and at some point before 1442 he sold or donated 40 acres of land in Warbleton to the same priory, without obtaining the necessary royal licence for an alienation in mortmain. Reg. Rede, i (Suss. Rec. Soc. viii), 98; CPR, 1441-6, p. 44. By the time he died he possessed lands in Brightling, Wartling, Herstmonceux and Dallington, which he had acquired piecemeal over the course of his career. Huntington Lib. San Marino, California, Battle Abbey mss, 521. It is not now possible to put a value on his holdings, yet his income from land would seem to have been a modest one for a shire knight, and, significantly, he was never distrained to take up knighthood, as would have been the case if he was worth over £40 p.a.

Iwode, evidently trained in the law or estate management, made his mark in the locality through a lifelong attachment to the prominent Sussex family of Fiennes. He is first recorded, in the spring of 1403, as one of the administrators of the goods of the late Sir William Fiennes, who had recently died intestate, and from then onwards for many years he was active about the affairs of Fiennes’s son and heir (Sir) Roger*, assisting him in numerous transactions from the time of his minority until he rose to be treasurer of Henry VI’s household and chief steward of the duchy of Lancaster. Add. 39375, f. 147; CCR, 1402-5, p. 506. It was as a feoffee of Roger’s estate at Herstmonceux that in 1413 Iwode was party to the purchase of a royal licence to block a highway in order to enlarge the park, and four years later he was one of those who presented a new incumbent to the rectory at Herstmonceux on the younger man’s behalf. Among his fellow feoffees were the wealthy and influential Sir John Pelham* (Fiennes’s former guardian), and John Halle†, a busy Sussex lawyer, both of whom were to figure largely in Iwode’s future dealings. CPR, 1413-16, p. 133; Reg. Chichele, iii. 460. Indeed, he may well have owed his earlier appointment as escheator of Surrey and Sussex in 1412 to Pelham, who was then treasurer of England and destined to be Henry IV’s executor. Albeit only for a year, he joined Sir John on the Sussex bench in 1416, at the same time as Fiennes made his first appearance as a j.p. Iwode’s knowledge of the law is hinted at in his appointment to the quorum, and it is clear that his judgement came to be respected locally, for he was occasionally chosen to mediate in disputes over property. CCR, 1422-9, p. 470; 1429-35, p. 103. In 1417 he was associated with Halle in a final concord concerning four Sussex manors which John Ashburnham† held in reversion. Ashburnham died shortly afterwards, leaving his affairs in considerable disorder, and in May 1419 Halle and his brother were bound to the chancellor in 1,000 marks to make a full account to his executors for money they had received from Pelham as the purchase-price of one of these manors, in order that the deceased’s debts might be paid. Iwode’s presence was required to ensure that the arrangements were properly conducted, and subsequently he made a formal quitclaim to the Halle brothers of his interest in the property. CP25(1)/240/83/24; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 67; CCR, 1419-22, pp. 43, 127.

Iwode was enfeoffed in 1421 of Sir Roger Fiennes’s estates in Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and Bedfordshire, and having been a witness in 1423 when Sir Roger acquired land in Wartling from the Hoo family, he later became a feoffee of that property, too. He also assisted Sir Roger and his brother James Fiennes* in the late 1420s when they acquired land at Hever in Kent. That his connexion with the Fiennes brothers remained close right up to his election to Parliament and beyond is clear enough. Nor can there be any doubt that when he entered the Commons he was also well acquainted with the clerk of the Parliaments, William Prestwick, for Prestwick had been among those who like him had been formally entrusted with Sir Roger’s goods and chattels and enfeoffed of Fiennes property in Kent and Windsor forest in the spring of 1430. Iwode’s fiduciary interest in the Fiennes estates continued until he died. CCR, 1422-9, p. 399; 1429-35, pp. 45-46, 69; 1435-41, pp. 266-7; CPR, 1429-36, p. 56; Egerton Ch. 589; C141/6/30. Prestwick and his parents were buried in Iwode’s parish church at Warbleton: CPR, 1441-6, p. 143. Meanwhile, Pelham had also engaged his services, for instance by employing him as an attorney in 1428 to deliver seisin of the barony, honour and rape of Hastings to his bastard son, Sir John junior. Add. Ch. 30048. On Pelham’s death Iwode succeeded him in the duchy of Lancaster post of steward of the honour of the Eagle, which he was occupying when returned to Parliament. Furthermore, for many years he was kept busy on behalf of the Benedictine monks at Battle abbey, both as a trustee of land granted to their house and as steward of their estates, a position he may well also have been holding at the time of his election. Battle Abbey mss, 882, 883, 1188.

In January 1431, when Parliament assembled, Iwode could boast several years’ experience in local administration as a royal commissioner. He was then apparently involved in lawsuits on his own account, for on 12 Apr., shortly after the dissolution, he placed all his moveable possessions in the safekeeping of a group of well-wishers, headed by two prominent members of the Sussex gentry, Sir Roger Fiennes and Sir Thomas Etchingham, and including Prestwick the clerk of the Parliaments, perhaps to protect them from confiscation. CCR, 1429-35, p. 171. Iwode was among those of his county required to take the generally-prescribed oath not to maintain malefactors, as administered in the spring of 1434. CPR, 1429-36, p. 372. Together with the Fiennes brothers, in July 1435 at Herstmonceux he was enfeoffed by Nicholas Carew* of Beddington of all his lands in Surrey, and in the same month he was party to settlements for Carew’s marriage to Sir Roger Fiennes’s daughter. CCR, 1435-41, p. 45; 1447-54. p. 100; Add. Chs. 23178, 23634. In the following January he witnessed a confirmation by Sir John Pelham the younger of Sir Roger’s title to the hundred of Foxearle, and together with Sir Roger six months later he attested a conveyance on behalf of John Halle’s widow and her new husband, John Devenish*. Fiennes again made him a recipient of his goods and chattels in 1437. CCR, 1435-41, pp. 111, 123, 192. Iwode’s dependability led to his being employed by other of Sir Roger’s associates and relations, such as Elizabeth, wife of Sir Richard Walkstead, and in his final years, although demoted from the stewardship of the duchy of Lancaster estates in Sussex, he agreed to serve there as deputy to (Sir) James Fiennes, then riding high in the King’s favour. In addition, in 1443 he was party to a conveyance of land in Selmeston to Bartholomew Bolney*, his successor as steward of Battle abbey. CCR, 1441-7, pp. 122, 435; Bolney Bk. (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxiii), 42.

Iwode may also have owed his marriage to his links with the Fiennes brothers, for his wife, Joan, was a kinswoman of theirs. Yet although she belonged to one of the most prominent and wealthy families of east Sussex, that of Fynch, she does not appear to have brought him much in the way of material benefits. On the contrary, Iwode was expected to support Joan’s relations: he promised one of her unmarried sisters, Parnel Fynch, who was living with the Iwodes at the time of the MP’s death, an annuity of £4 when she set up house on her own. The marriage may not have been contracted until late in Iwode’s life, and failed to produce surviving children. The chief beneficiaries of his will, made on 4 May 1450, were the four sons of his sister Joan, widow of William Alman, who were given a reversionary interest in the bulk of his estate following the death of his widow. Another beneficiary was Harry Slyhand, who was to have specified lands in tail, provided that he undertook not to obstruct the executors. Battle Abbey mss, 521. Harry was in all likelihood another relation of the MP, for in a petition to the chancellor certain parishioners of Westham in Sussex claimed that Iwode had been among the feoffees required to perform the last will of William Slyhand, who had asked Iwode’s sister, Joan Alman, to sell 35 acres of his land and the feoffees to transfer title according to the sale. From the proceeds they were to pay £2 to the hospital of St. John in Westham and the rest to the parishioners for works on their church. This they had neglected to do. C1/16/679. Iwode died before July 1450. CP40/769, rot. 131. The legatees under his will encountered difficulties in gaining possession of their parts of the estate from his feoffees, so that Harry Slyhand was forced to petition the chancellor for redress. The widowed Joan Iwode did likewise in the early 1460s, stating in her bill that Iwode’s intentions had been that after her life-interest in the estate ended it was to be settled on the Almans. C1/19/118; 28/110. The latter, in the person of Iwode’s nephew Richard Alman, successfully obtained his inheritance in Warbleton later on in the century. C141/6/30; VCH Suss. ix. 208.