LILBURN, Thomas (1390-1438), of West Lilburn, Northumb.

The Lilburns had been established at West Lilburn, part of the barony of Wark, since at least the mid-thirteenth century. The family appears to have died out in the male line not long afterwards, but their name was perpetuated through their heiress, Christine, wife of Sir Alexander de Bunkle (d.c.1300), a Berwickshire knight. By 1324 her grandson Sir John Lilburn† had livery of the manor of West Lilburn. This Sir John enjoyed a distinguished career on the borders, serving as sheriff and knight of the shire for Northumberland in the Parliament of February 1328, and his grandson and namesake also sat in the Commons (in 1384) and was active on the borders, being captured by the Scots at Carham in 1370 and again at the battle of Otterburn in 1388. That Sir John made a good marriage to Margaret, the thrice-married widow of Robert Neville and Sir Thomas Gray. Hist. Northumb. xiv. 434-6; E. Mackenzie, Hist. and Top. Description Northumb. 12-14. When he died in 1399, however, the family estates had been impoverished by successive Scottish raids. He died seised of the manors of West Lilburn, Shawdon and Beanley with a moiety of those of Belford and Easington, a fairly compact estate in the north of Northumberland, but said to be worth only £5 13s. 4d. p.a., with West Lilburn itself said to be worth nothing. CIPM, xviii. 3.

Sir John’s heir was his son Henry, born at Shawdon on 1 Mar. 1386. Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, from whom the family held their manor of Beanley, is said to have been his godfather. CIPM, xix. 347. Henry did not live long to enjoy his inheritance. On his death shortly before 10 Oct. 1410 he was succeeded by his brother Thomas, then just under the age of majority. On 6 Nov. that year the escheator of Northumberland was ordered to deliver seisin of the Lilburn estates to him, but replied that he could not do so as Henry’s widow, Agnes, was pursuing her dower in face of Thomas’s refusal to allow her rights. The matter was resolved in the following June, although not perhaps entirely to our MP’s satisfaction. In June 1411 an agreement, brokered between Lilburn and Agnes’s father, Sir John Widdrington†, gave her the manor of West Lilburn and an annual rent of 40s. from the manor of Beanley. CIPM, xix. 896, 902; Northumb. and Durham Deeds (Newcastle-upon-Tyne Recs. Cttee. vii), 236-7.

Lilburn thus found himself disadvantaged both by this provision for his brother’s widow and the long-term devaluation of his patrimony, but he was compensated by the profitable marriage he contracted early in his career. His wife was one of the three daughters and heiresses of a neighbour of the Lilburns, Sir Henry Heton of Chillingham. On the death of her brother, William, in 1401, she fell heiress to an estate probably worth about £90 p.a. and well situated to supplement Lilburn’s own inheritance. The survival until 1426 of Sir Henry’s widow, the wife of Robert Harbottle† (d.1419), meant that it was long burdened by her dower interest, and from Lilburn’s point of view, there was the further disadvantage that his wife had issue by her first husband who were destined to inherit the estate. None the less, the marriage marked a significant advancement for the young Lilburn and promised to reverse the recent decline in the family’s fortunes. To the subsidy of 1436 he was assessed on a comfortable income of £20 p.a., and, given his wife’s inheritance, this was probably a marked underassessment. CIPM, xviii. 4-5, 896; xxii. 757; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 286; Hist. Northumb. ix. 114-15; E179/158/38.

Beyond this Lilburn’s career is poorly documented, and he makes only sporadic appearances in the records. He held none of the major of offices of county administration, and his election as MP in 1433 was the highlight of his career. C219/14/4. He probably owed his appointment as tronager and pesager in the port of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1417 to his wife’s stepfather Robert Harbottle, then deputy to the chief butler in that port. CPR, 1416-22, p. 116; 1422-9, p. 182. For the rest his administrative activities were restricted to regular appearances as an attestor to the Northumberland parliamentary elections and as a juror in local inquisitions. On 10 Sept. 1421, for example, he was at Alnwick for the inquisition post mortem of John, Lord Welles; and on 2 Mar. 1430 he was at Newcastle for that of the wealthy merchant, Roger Thornton†. C219/13/1, 5; 14/3; 15/1; C138/61/61; CIPM, xxiii. 378. More interestingly, in April 1428 he was among the four arbiters chosen by Isabel, the widow of William Heron, to determine her dispute with her husband’s murderer, John Manners†, but this is an isolated instance of his involvement, beyond the mere witnessing of deeds, in the transactions of his neighbours. Durham Univ. Lib., cathedral muns. locelli, Loc. V:51.

Lilburn’s relative obscurity is only partially explained by a slightly premature death. He was not yet 50 years old when he died on 10 Sept. 1438. An inquisition post mortem, taken only 18 days later, shows that his brother’s wife must have been then dead for he is returned as dying seised of the manor of West Lilburn which had been assigned to her in 1411. His son John, then aged 23, was named as his heir. The family failed in the male line on the death of this John’s son, another John, in 1506. CIPM, xxv. 188; CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 304.