PALSHUDE, Thomas (d.1465), of Guildford and Merrow, Surr.

Palshude’s family had been established at Kirdford in Sussex by the final decade of the fourteenth century, and members of it continued to be resident there until the 1450s or beyond. W. Suss. RO, Add. mss, 3752, 3772, 12320. It was at Kirdford that William Palshude, possibly the father of our MP, acquired six messuages and 80 acres of land in 1414. Suss. Feet of Fines (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii), 228. The Palshudes were probably related to Robert atte Mille† of Guildford, twice a Member of the Commons for that borough, whose substantial landed holdings, worth £44 p.a., were spread equally between Surrey and west Sussex, and also included land at Kirdford. The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 737-8; Feudal Aids, vi. 518, 524. This kinship is strongly suggested by Thomas Palshude’s dealings with atte Mille’s family. In Easter term 1432 (while attending his first Parliament) he and his wife Joan were defendants in a suit in the common pleas regarding a third part of the Surrey manor of ‘Wyk’. The plaintiff, Richard Raunce, claimed his title under the terms of an entail made in Edward II’s reign, while the defendants called to warranty atte Mille’s heir, his great-nephew Robert. In January 1434 the Palshudes formally agreed with the latter how the estate of the late MP should be apportioned: the heir made a quitclaim to the Palshudes of lands in Kirdford and also in Worpelsdon and Ash in Surrey, while securing confirmation from the couple of his title to more at Pulborough and Great Ham. CP40/685, rot. 102. CCR, 1429-35, p. 30. At the same time Robert reached agreement with his kinsman Edmund Mille*.

Palshude had begun his career in the 1420s as an attorney in suits in King’s bench for clients from Sussex, and he long retained his interests in that county. KB27/672, rot. 6d. He brought a plea of trespass on his property in Suss. in 1442, and was a feoffee of lands in Rusper in the 1450s: KB725, rot. 82; CAD, v. A10433. Yet it had been in the county town of Surrey that he chose to settle. A man of some standing in Guildford by the early 1430s (as his first election to Parliament shows), in the spring of 1434, described as living at Merrow nearby, he was listed among those from Surrey who were to take the generally prescribed oath not to maintain lawbreakers. In December the same year he was chosen as Guildford’s mayor. Following his second election to the Commons, in 1442, his continued interest in parliamentary affairs is indicated by his presence at no fewer than five of the seven shire elections held at Guildford between 1447 and 1460. CPR, 1429-36, p. 380; C219/15/4, 7; 16/1, 2, 6. Furthermore, his standing in the locality was confirmed by his appointment as one of the coroners for Surrey by the autumn of 1457.

Guildford remained the principal focus of Palshude’s interests, and as well as acting as a witness to local transactions in the 1440s and 1450s, he took on the trusteeship of property at Shere nearby. C1/34/69; CCR, 1454-61, p. 399. In February 1465 he was associated with Lord Berners and Lord Audley* as a recipient of the goods and chattels of Richard Wisbeche of Guildford. CCR, 1461-8, p. 270. Continuing to be active as a coroner throughout that year (notably in supervising with his fellow coroner Richard Skinner† the process of outlawry of James Laurence at the suit of Richard Lewknor*), he died while still in office at an unknown date between November 1465 and the autumn of 1466. E159/243, recorda Mich. rots. 44-46. Nothing is known about Palshude’s descendants, or who inherited his property, which included holdings in Guildford, Stoke next Guildford and Shaldeford he had acquired ten years earlier. CP25(1)/232/74/53.