The Musgraves, a family of ancient stock, rose to prominence in the mid fourteenth century. Our MP’s great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Musgrave† (d.c.1385), in the midst of a career dedicated to Anglo-Scottish conflict, was summoned to the Lords between 1350 and 1373, and although no later member of the family was accorded the same honour the family long remained one of the most important in Westmorland. In the time of our MP their estates were largely confined to that shire: they held several manors in the east of the county, centred on their caput honoris, Hartley castle (of which nearly nothing now survives), with only a single outlying property located at South Holme in north Yorkshire. The bulk of these lands were held from the Cliffords, with whom their relations were understandably close; close enough, indeed, for the future Lord Musgrave to have married, in the mid 1340s, as his second wife, the widow of Robert, Lord Clifford (d.1344).
Sir Richard’s father, during the course of a turbulent career, played the prominent part expected of one of such high local standing, serving as MP and j.p. in his native shire and, despite his lack of lands there, as sheriff in neighbouring Cumberland. While his father still lived, our MP made a violent start to his own career. On 26 July 1408, if a complaint made to the chancellor by the victim conveys the truth, he led 120 of his father’s tenants and servants to the house of John Helton* at Helton Bacon, near Appleby, with the intention of assaulting or even killing him. Finding him absent, they rode to the common pasture at nearby Murton, where they stole cattle worth as much as 35 marks belonging to Helton and his tenants. Thereafter, so Helton’s complaint ran, the campaign of intimidation was maintained so that he had dared not approach his own house for nine months. This seems a more serious complaint, at least in terms of the level of alleged violence, than those that usually came before the chancellor. Musgrave is said to have been acting as agent of his father and John Helton of Burton, but there is no other evidence to explain his actions. Perhaps his father’s death in the autumn of 1409 brought the matter to a close.
Helton’s allegations did not prevent Musgrave, upon inheriting the family patrimony, taking his father’s place on the Westmorland bench. Curiously, however, he was almost immediately removed. Of the eight j.p.s of 1410, three, among whom was Musgrave, were not reappointed on the issue of the next commission in the following year. His removal was followed by the further annoyance of a fine of 60s. for his failure to take up knighthood.
Soon afterwards Musgrave was involved in another episode of disorder. In a petition to John, duke of Bedford, as guardian of England, (Sir) John Pennington*, another of the leading gentry of the north-west, complained that, when he and 14 companions were on their way to garrison Berwick-upon-Tweed, they were violently assaulted and despoiled of goods and harness, not by the Scots, but by a large band of English, headed by our MP and his brother, John. This was, on the face of it, a serious offence, but there is no evidence to give the incident either context or precise date (beyond that it took place between 1418 and 1420) and nothing to suggest that the Musgraves suffered for their conduct.
After this colourful start to his career, Sir Richard settled to a more peaceful role in local administration. He troubled to attend most of the parliamentary elections held in Westmorland between 1411 and 1453, and he also served on several occasions, unusually for a man of his rank, as a juror at sessions of gaol delivery. In 1422 he headed the jurors in both Westmorland and Cumberland at the inquisitions post mortem held on the death of his feudal overlord, John, Lord Clifford, killed at the siege of Meaux.
These marriage connexions had a significance for Musgrave’s sole election to Parliament in 1433. He was returned in company with Sir Henry Threlkeld, while his son-in-law, William Thornburgh, and his putative nephew, Roland Wharton*, were the MPs for Appleby.
At about this time Musgrave was also called upon by the Crown take a hand in another local quarrel, that between Thomas Bethom and William Stapleton over the property of Bethom’s second wife, who was Stapleton’s stepmother. Our MP had a personal interest here, for his wife may have been Bethom’s daughter and his son and heir-apparent, Thomas, married Stapleton’s daughter while the dispute was in agitation. In May 1434 he was one of those commissioned to inquire into those lands held by Stapleton’s father which, much to the disadvantage of Bethom’s wife, had been omitted from an earlier inquisition. For reasons that are unclear the commissioners long delayed to act. Not until 22 Apr. 1441 did they, among them our MP, come to Penrith to hear a jury declare that Stapleton’s father had died seised only of those lands specified in the suspect inquisition.
The second part of Musgrave’s career is only sporadically documented, a reflection, in part, of the paucity of surviving records for the north-west, and perhaps also of the growing importance of younger members of his family. Although he continued to be appointed to local commissions, the records speak principally of his younger kinsmen. By the early 1450s two of these had entered the service of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, as the earl embarked on a systematic attempt to extend his influence in Westmorland. By 1453 our MP’s younger son, John, was acting as one of the earl’s receivers, and on 22 Nov. 1456 our MP’s grandson and heir-apparent, Richard, entered into a life indenture with the earl. This indenture gives an indication of the family’s other connexions. The younger Richard was said to be, ‘bylast and witholden toward and with the said Erl terme of his lyf’ against all save John, Lord Clifford, and Thomas, Lord Dacre. This supports the identification, in the traditional pedigrees, of this Richard’s wife as the sister of Clifford, and the grand-daughter of Dacre.