MAYHEW, William II, of Launceston, Cornw.

Although no definite evidence of his parentage has been discovered, it is probable that the William Mayhew who represented Dunheved in the Parliament of 1455 was the son of John Mayhew, who had sat in the Parliament of May 1413 for the same constituency. There was at least one contemporary namesake, as two men of this name set their seals to the Cornish election indenture of 1442: C219/15/2. It is possible that the MP’s namesake was the William Mayowe of the parish of Helland who served Sir John Marney as his bailiff of Colquite in the 1450s: SC6/1242/1, 2; 1246/19, 26; CAD, v. A11242, 11267. This man’s family owned property at Smallhill in the parish of Otterham, as well as elsewhere in eastern Cornwall, including tenements at ‘Westmenhynek’ and in the town of Launceston itself. SC11/968; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 709; Launceston recs. B/Laus/65. Although nothing is known of William’s education, he may have had some legal training, for in May 1438 he was acting as a mainpernor in Chancery for his neighbour Michael Power. CFR, xvii. 40.

Undoubtedly through the intervention of his putative father, who had long been associated with the influential duchy of Cornwall feodary John Hawley*, William also entered the latter’s service, and it was in this capacity that in June 1434 he seized a selection of pewter and silver vessels worth four marks as the goods of an outlaw, Richard Pluk of St. Neots. Although Pluk did not deny his outlawry, he challenged its validity on a technicality and demanded damages of £10. KB27/713, rot. 66d. Before long, Mayhew attracted more senior duchy office. In 1440 he was appointed one of the reeves of his home town of Launceston and sometime afterwards he served a spell as deputy to the long-serving duchy bailiff of the stannary of Foweymore. His connexions with the duchy authorities aside, he also commanded some respect among his neighbours, for whom he occasionally attested deeds. Launceston recs. B/Laus/14. Nevertheless, his relations with the men of the south-west were not invariably free from conflict. Thus, in the summer of 1446 John Mayhew and three others had to appear before the assize justices at Launceston to stand surety for William’s good behaviour towards the chaplain Walter Coll, and three years later he was once more in trouble, being accused of having violently assaulted and near-fatally wounded Isabel Lowys in March 1448. KB27/753, rex rot. 22d; C254/145/9.

Around this time Mayhew attached himself to Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon. Increasingly irritated at being denied what he regarded as his rightful position of pre-eminence in the south-west by a regime which favoured to his regional rivals, the earl of Wiltshire and William, Lord Bonville*, in the autumn of 1451 Courtenay rallied his retainers, Mayhew among them, to proceed against his opponents with armed might. Having failed to achieve any significant success, the following spring he led his men east to join forces with those of the discontented duke of York, but the uprising came to a sudden and dramatic end with the arrest of the two lords at Blackheath. Mayhew, who was indicted for his part in the uprising, swiftly availed himself of the general pardon offered by the King. C67/40, m. 33; KB9/105/2/169; 267/42b; KB27/765, rex rot. 9. He seems to have learnt his lesson, for there is no indication that he took any part in the renewed violence that swept the south-west three years later, in the autumn of 1455. He was at that time representing Dunheved in the Commons, and probably owed his return to his local credentials rather than the influence of an aristocratic patron. By then he had apparently come into his paternal inheritance, including the Mayhew property in Launceston, and the prominence given to his name on panels of local juries bears witness to the regard in which he was held among his neighbours. C139/140/28; KB9/249/27. Mayhew’s contributions to the proceedings of the Commons (if any) are obscure, but unlike several other south-western Members he did not, apparently, abandon Parliament to join his erstwhile lord the earl of Devon in his campaign of murder and pillage in the West Country, culminating in the siege of Powderham castle, the seat of one of the Devon shire knights, (Sir) Philip Courtenay*, which was in full progress during the second session. Like many of those who did join the fighting, he sued out a fresh pardon in the aftermath of the ‘love-day’ of March 1458, but in his case this was probably intended to protect him from litigation arising from his official duties, rather than any charges relating to the unrest of 1455. C67/42, m. 17.

It is not certain whether William’s association with the Courtenays of Tiverton and his family’s long service to the Lancastrian dynasty prompted him to throw in his lot with Henry VI in the dramatic final months of the reign. If Mayhew retained his Lancastrian loyalties beyond Edward IV’s accession, he did not live long enough to be placed at a disadvantage by these leanings, for he was certainly dead by the spring of 1462 when his widow, Alice, who was entrusted with the execution of his will, took possession of property in Launceston. Launceston recs. B/Laus/100; CP40/810, rot. 69d. In 1463 a new rental of the duchy of Cornwall property there recorded Mayhew’s holdings as being in the hands of his heirs. SC11/968. By that autumn Alice had remarried, taking as her second husband a local gentleman, Stephen Carkike. CP40/810, rot. 69d. Mayhew is not known to have left any children, and by September 1469 the inheritance had passed to his kinsman John Carwithan. Launceston recs. B/Laus/65.