KETERIDGE, William, of Plymouth, Devon.

Keteridge’s origins and parentage have not been established with any degree of certainty, but it is possible that his family hailed from Cambridgeshire or Hertfordshire, for a namesake, said to come from those counties, was associated in 1413 with the London grocer Richard Keteridge, a later connexion of the Plymouth man. CP25(1)/46/84/135; CCR, 1409-13, p. 432; 1429-35, p. 119. Similarly, it may have been the later MP who in June 1421 mustered at Sandwich to sail to France as a man-at-arms in the retinue of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Worcester. E101/50/1, m. 3. It is not clear what first brought William Keteridge to the south-west, where he was established by the early months of Henry VI’s reign, but it is likely that his professional practice as a lawyer had a part to play. For more than two decades he regularly appeared in the Westminster courts of King’s bench, common pleas and Chancery as an attorney or a mainpernor for a range of individuals, mostly from the south-west and including the notorious Adam Vivian* and the prominent Exeter merchant John Hull*. KB27/646, rex rot. 14; 675, rex rot. 8; 680, rot. 40; 707, rot. 2d; CP40/655, rot. 622; 667, rot. 474; 718, rot. 116; C1/4/79, 69/103; E5/486/27-28; CCR, 1429-35, pp. 111, 114, 119; CFR, xv. 272, 324; xvi. 24. It was probably on account of such connexions that in March 1428, when Hull was serving as mayor of Exeter, Keteridge was appointed as the city’s attorney, an office which he would continue to hold for over 12 years. In addition to the annual fee of 13s. 4d., the post provided him with occasional rewards for extraordinary services, such as searches in Domesday book or the Crown’s other records. Exeter receiver’s acct. 7-8 Hen. VI, m. 2.

It was probably also in the course of his professional activities that Keteridge first came to the attention of the burgesses of Tavistock, whom he twice represented in the Commons. Evidently, they were content with his services, for some of their number subsequently called upon him in a private capacity. In 1430 and 1440 he appeared in the court of common pleas as attorney for Richard Secheville* in his disputes with John Julkin* and others, and in 1438 he acted as one of the arbiters in Secheville’s drawn out dispute with Henry Fortescue†, the former chief justice of Ireland. CP40/679, rot. 600; 709, rots. 114d, 118d; 718, rot. 116. By this date he was a lawyer of considerable repute, for his fellow arbiters were among the most prominent men-of-law in England and included the future chief justices John Fortescue* and John Hody*, the future justice John Needham*, and the serjeants William Boef* and William Chauntrell. CP40/709, rots. 114d, 118d. So well known was Keteridge’s name, that he was one of the four men of repute impersonated by a group of fraudsters who appeared well clothed in the court of King’s bench in the autumn of 1442 with the intention of standing surety for an associate in the guise of distinguished professionals. KB27/726, rex rot. 43.

Keteridge’s property at Sutton Prior (in Plymouth) was mostly acquired between 1427 and 1436 by a string of purchases from the hosier John Hereford and the Penzance burgess Alexander Kenegy, and included more than 30 messuages, four gardens and other lands. Another tenement, in Nethercombe in Holbeton, was leased from Richard Secheville and his wife Margery in 1438. CP25(1)/46/82/75-76, 84/135, 85/175. There can be little doubt these extensive holdings in the newly-incorporated borough of Plymouth combined with Keteridge’s professional skills to recommend him for election as the first mayor of the new town after the grant of its charter in 1440. Plymouth Mun. Recs., 15, 36.

Little else is known of Keteridge’s career. By early 1437 he was in dispute with his neighbour Thomas Hill IV* over a trespass, the nature of which is now obscure, KB27/703, rot. 69d; 707, rots. 14d, 15d. and at other times he is found embroiled in the type of minor litigation common to his class, squabbling over rights to property and livestock. CP40/660, rot. 148; 679, rot. 65; 697, rot. 176; 708, rot. 56. The date of his death has not been discovered, but it probably occurred sometime in the early 1440s, when he disappears from the records. A branch of the Keteridges remained in Cambs., and the William Keteridge who held lands worth at least £10 p.a. in that county in 1436 served as escheator of Cambs. and Hunts. in 1445-6. He died in 1471: H.L. Gray, ‘Incomes from Land in Eng. in 1436’, EHR, xlix. 632; CFR, xxi. 4.