PENNE, Richard, of Portland, Dorset.

Although very little is recorded about Richard Penne, it may be presumed that he was a kinsman of Robert Penne† (who sat in seven Parliaments between 1402 and 1421, all but one of them for Weymouth, the other for the neighbouring borough of Melcombe Regis), and of John Penne*, who represented Weymouth in 1421 (Dec.) and again in the first Parliament of Henry VI’s reign. Richard accompanied John to the Commons on the latter occasion, the two men having been returned by different but adjacent ports. Another member of the family, Thomas Penne, traded in canvas, a cargo of which came into a Dorset port on a boat from Alderney at the close of the reign, E122/119/2. and it seems likely that Richard also made a living from trade.

There is a possibility that the MP was the Richard Peny who had been party to a final concord in 1399 concerning the manor of Childhay in west Dorset, Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x), 233. and a man of the same name married Alice (b.c.1399), one of the daughters and coheirs of John Warmwell of Newton Surmaville in Somerset at some point before 1420, and died at an unknown date before October 1435 (by which time Alice was married to Simon Blyke). CCR, 1435-41, pp. 23, 27-28, 148; CPR, 1429-36, pp. 598-9; C139/75/31. However, there is no way of knowing whether this was our MP.