POPE, William (d.1452), of Winchelsea, Suss.

We learn from the petitions Pope sent to the Crown late in his life that he entered royal service in Henry IV’s reign, or perhaps even earlier. He benefited from the generosity of all three Lancastrian monarchs, starting with an annuity of 20 marks charged on the duchy of Lancaster by grant of Henry of Bolingbroke, who also made him a personal gift of £20 from the hanaper towards the end of his reign. Henry V added to this the sum of £10 p.a. for life, payable by the chamberlain of Chester. CAD, iii. D1024; CPR, 1441-6, p. 297. None of these grants give a hint as to Pope’s origins, nor what kind of services he had performed to earn such substantial rewards, although perhaps they were of a military nature. Ranked as an esquire by March 1413, he crossed to Normandy in the spring of 1415 with the royal army, although whether he fought at Agincourt is not known. That he performed his duties satisfactorily is clear from the letters patent of February 1417 awarding him the manors of Staveley and Alwaston in Derbyshire, for the lifetime of Gervase Frescheville, the heir to the late tenant-in-chief, who had been found to be an idiot. It was intended that the property should provide Pope with an annual income of as much as 40 marks. E404/31/289; CPR, 1416-22, p. 61. Then, in December 1421 Pope gave up his separate annuities of 20 marks and £10 in return for the lucrative office of chirographer of the common pleas, which he was to hold for life. CPR, 1416-22, p. 409.

Following Henry V’s death certain difficulties arose with regard to these grants, only for them to be quickly resolved to Pope’s satisfaction. On 15 Feb. 1423 he escorted his ward Frescheville before the Council, in order to demonstrate that he was still of unsound mind, and after he had established that this was indeed the case the wardship was confirmed to him. Six days later the Council also considered whether to renew Pope’s grant of the office of chirographer, which had been invalidated because of inconsistencies in the letters patent. Nevertheless, he proved fortunate again, being confirmed in the post until the next Parliament, and when that Parliament ended, in February 1424, re-gaining it for term of his life. PPC, iii. 35, 41; CPR, 1422-9, p. 194. The ease with which Pope secured these concessions was almost certainly due to his links with the Protector, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. As Gloucester’s ‘servant’ he took responsibility for collecting sums of money for him at the Exchequer on a number of occasions in the 1420s, E403/663, m. 6; 664, m. 13; 688, m. 12. and the duke himself rewarded him with an annuity of £10. E163/7/31/1, no. 44. The Council of Henry VI’s minority, perhaps prompted by the duke, continued to bestow favours upon him, notably the post of verger of the company of the Garter, which besides a daily wage of 1s. also provided him with a house in the precincts of Windsor castle (kept in good repair at the Crown’s expense). His principal duty was to carry the rod before the King in procession on festival days. CPR, 1422-9, p. 454; E404/57/281. In 1441 he purchased a garden in ‘Pescote’ Street, Windsor, from one of the canons: St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, recs., XV. 45. 149. Pope’s patron Gloucester was constable of Dover castle and warden of the Cinque Ports, and it is likely to have been through him that Pope came to be instructed to take the musters of forces near Dover and Sandwich prior to their embarkation in the King’s army in the spring of 1430, and, more important, to obtain the bailiffship of Winchelsea, a post in the Crown’s appointment. The post was secured with remarkable speed. William Catton† died in office on 5 Mar. 1431, while the Parliament summoned by Gloucester as ‘custos Anglie’ was in session at Westminster. Pope sought the sponsorship of the Commons for his petition to have the bailiffship in recompense for his loss of the manor of Staveley, which had been taken back into the Crown’s keeping after the death of Pope’s ward Frescheville some 15 months earlier. The petition was duly granted by advice of the Lords, and just five days after Catton’s death Pope became bailiff of Winchelsea for life. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 505; SC8/25/1240; PROME, x. 458; CPR, 1429-36, p. 113. At Frescheville’s inq. post mortem (C139/45/32) Pope had been found to have wasted his ward’s lands, notably by felling 100 oaks and 80 ash trees. He was formally accepted by the mayor and jurats assembled in the Port. Cott. Julius BIV, ff. 40-41. Further petitions, addressed to the Commons sitting in the next Parliament, in 1432, also met with success. These were requests to change the terms of Pope’s tenure of office at Windsor from ‘during royal pleasure’ to life, a change which was approved by authority of Parliament. SC8/26/1273-4; RP, iv. 418 (cf. PROME, xi. 64); CPR, 1429-36, p. 207.

Meanwhile, Pope had been instructed to take musters of troops at Winchelsea on a number of occasions, and had been rewarded at the Exchequer for doing so. E403/706, m. 4; 709, m. 3. He must have been sometimes resident in the Port, not only to carry out such duties but also to hold courts in his capacity as bailiff, so that when he was returned to the Parliament of 1433 he may be presumed to have complied with the statutory requirements in this respect. The Parliament assembled on 8 July and was dissolved after two sessions just before Christmas. Pope took out letters of attorney before travelling overseas in February following, although the purpose of his journey is not revealed. DKR, xlviii. 296. Curiously, despite his role as King’s bailiff, at the end of March 1434 he was chosen by the mayor of Winchelsea, William Fynch*, to be one of the jurats whose task was to advise the mayor during his term of office. Cott. Julius BIV, f. 50v. While his second Parliament was in session in the autumn of 1435, he joined William Alard* of Winchelsea in suing a local carpenter for the sum of £20. The suit was brought in the court of common pleas, where Pope continued to receive fees as chirographer. CP40/699, rot. 187d.

Besides authorizing the collection of a fifteenth and tenth, the Parliament of 1435 granted a special subsidy levied on lands, annuities and offices. The assessments for this subsidy reveal that Pope himself then enjoyed an income of as much as £80 p.a., none of which was derived from land. E163/7/31/1, no. 44; 15th Cent. Eng. ed. Chrimes, Ross and Griffiths, 98, 122-3; E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 14 (viii). But this income was to be drastically reduced in May 1438, after Henry VI attained his majority; thereafter Pope had to share the profits of all his posts at Westminster, Winchelsea and Windsor. CPR, 1436-41, pp. 165, 170, 188, 301. Nevertheless, there is no hint that he ever fell out of royal favour. He continued to receive preferential treatment at the Exchequer, E403/741, m. 6; 743, m. 12; 747, m. 17. and to be given fees and livery at the Household. E101/409/9, 11, 16; 410/1, 3. Furthermore, on 9 Jan.1442 he received yet another grant for term of his life. This was of a number of properties in Winchelsea, worth £7 p.a., which had been forfeited as having been illegally purchased by aliens. Just over a year later he obtained a pardon exonerating him from any offences and negligence, all fines and any consequent outlawries. CPR, 1441-6, pp. 31, 173.

Pope was ever mindful of his financial interests. In the autumn of 1444 he petitioned to complain that the substitution of the office of chirographer for his early annuities, back in 1421, and the substitution of the bailiffship of Winchelsea for his 40 marks p.a. from the Derbyshire estate had each lost him £10 a year. He also claimed that it had cost him 160 marks to purchase the office of verger at Windsor. It was now decided that in view of these factors, his loyal service over a period of 50 years and his ‘great age’, he should be recompensed with £10 p.a. from the alnage on the sale of cloth in London. CPR, 1441-6, pp. 297, 359, 376. Clearly, he continued to have influence where it mattered. He successfully petitioned for redress in 1446 when ‘lak of counsail’ resulted in variations in the wording of the two patents authorizing this latest annuity, enabling the farmers of the cloth subsidy to defraud him of £7 4s. 3d., and he also claimed to be owed £4 3s. 9d. in the ‘countynghous’ for his household wages. Gifts continued to come his way, too. E404/61/148, 62/202; E403/762, m. 8. That December Pope gave up the properties in Winchelsea which he held by royal grant in return for a tun of red Gascon wine to be received every Christmas in the port of London. Robert Manfeld (his fellow verger at Windsor) was granted the annuity from the alnage in reversion after his death, in April 1447, CPR, 1446-52, pp. 51, 72. but Manfeld’s expectations proved to be premature. Pope was still able to pursue his rights. Eight years earlier he had agreed that his annuity from the duke of Gloucester, which had fallen into arrear, should henceforth be paid from the profits of the lordship and castle of Colchester. The duke’s death and the grant of the lordship and castle to John Hampton II*, resulted in further delays in payment, so that he was now owed £15. Nevertheless, Pope, ever resourceful, managed to obtain payment of the arrears at the Exchequer in the summer of 1448, and two years later secured a warrant instructing payment to him of a further £40. E403/771, m. 10; 779, m. 9; 781, m. 2; E404/64/194. Another warrant to the Exchequer, dated 9 Sept. 1450, referred to two sums, of £60 and 40 marks, owing to him following the Act of Resumption granted in the previous Parliament. He was willing to give up his claim in return for a cash payment of £40, paid ‘in all goodely hast’. E404/67/15.

This ‘welbeloved squire’ died shortly before 16 May 1452, when John Copledyke* took his place as bailiff of Winchelsea. CPR, 1446-52, p. 550. It is surprising that someone with such influence at court, at least so far as his own interests were concerned, left no record of his private life, and that, highly unusual among his contemporaries, he does not appear to have invested his substantial income in land. William may have been related to Thomas Pope*, a contemporary who also held an office at Windsor and served as a King’s bailiff – in his case at Rye, the closest one of the Cinque Ports to Winchelsea – but they sat in different Parliaments, and no record of their association has been traced.