POULTNEY, Thomas, of Poultney, Leics and Shenley, Herts.

The Poultneys owed their wealth and lands to Sir John Poultney (d.1349), a merchant who had made his fortune in the city of London and invested in property in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Kent and his native Leicestershire. These substantial estates, along with holdings in the City worth some 100 marks p.a., descended to Sir John’s heirs, and by 1524 the then head of the family, Sir Thomas Poultney enjoyed a landed income of at least £160 p.a. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 128; Leics. Village Notes ed. Farnham, iii. 229; Trans. Leics. Arch. Soc. xxii. 258.

Given the size of his inheritance, the MP of 1431 is a surprisingly obscure figure. He is not known to have held any official position apart from his seat in the Commons, but his non-involvement in public affairs is probably at least partly explained by the time he spent abroad in France. He is first heard of in the late spring of 1414 when he, his father, two younger brothers and three others were indicted for ambushing and attempting to kill Richard Chetwynd at Hopwas Hays in Staffordshire in the previous February. In the same spring, he and several accomplices, probably Poultney tenants or servants, were indicted for ambushing and wounding Thomas Wylkyn and Thomas Hayward, again at Hopwas Hays, in July 1412. In response to the first indictment, the Poultneys paid fines of 40d. each to recover the King’s grace; as a result of the second, Thomas and his associates came before the court of King’s bench. Appearing there on 1 June 1414, they pleaded not guilty, secured bail and were subsequently acquitted by an assize jury sitting at Lichfield. KB9/113/1, 13; KB27/613, fines rot. 5d, rex rot. 1. It is impossible to explain the enmities lying behind the indictments, although it is known that Chetwynd (a son of Sir William Chetwynd†) had fallen out with the Poultneys some time before the incident at Hopwas Hays. He and several associates had agreed to submit their differences with Sir John Poultney to arbitration in November 1412, but evidently this attempt at peace-making had failed. CAD, ii. A2753. It was perhaps to escape such quarrels that Thomas joined the retinue which the duke of Clarence took to France in 1415. E101/45/4. There are no further details for his career as a soldier, although some five years later he was included in a list of Leicestershire men considered suitable for military service. E28/97/17B.

It is not certain when Poultney succeeded his father, although he had probably come into his own by the mid 1420s when he was involved in litigation in the court of common pleas. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 128-9, suggests that Sir John Poultney may have survived until 1428. This concerned the Poultney manor of Ospringe in Kent (previously the subject of litigation between his father and William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester), which he claimed Sir Thomas Sackville† and others were wrongfully occupying. The case reached pleadings in Trinity term 1426 and came to an end two years later, by which date Poultney had entered the manor and the defendants acknowledged his possession. CP40/638, rot. 349; 664, rot. 463; Leics. Med. Peds. 53-54. In due course he had Ospringe settled upon himself and his wife Margery and their children, and he made a similar settlement of his manors of Poultney and Shenley in 1428. CP25(1)/292/66/81. Margery was the daughter of one of the most prominent landowners in south-east England, but there is no evidence that she brought any lands of her own to the Poultneys. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 277.

Although associated with Leicestershire for much of his career, Poultney had taken up residence in Hertfordshire when he was distrained for knighthood in 1430. He entered Parliament late in life, for he was almost certainly dead by December 1433. In that month his heir, John Poultney, demised the manor at Ospringe to John Thornbury* and his wife Margery, to hold for a nominal rent during her lifetime and thereafter by the payment of 20 marks p.a. to Poultney from Thornbury. C140/31/20. Very probably, she was the MP’s widow and Ospringe had been settled on her in dower. The exact relationship between the MP and his heir is unclear; John Poultney was perhaps his younger brother or nephew. VCH Herts. ii. 273; Leics. Med. Peds. ed. Farnham, 52, The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 129, assumes that John was the MP’s brother. In 1455 John, an associate of Edward Grey, Lord Ferrers of Groby, was suspected of lollardy by John Chedworth, bishop of Lincoln, but he appears to have made his peace with the Church before his death in 1469. He was succeeded by his son, another Thomas. C. Carpenter, Locality and Polity, 460n; VCH Leics. i. 367; C140/31/20.