RANDOLF, William, of Surr.

Randolf, probably a Surrey man, may perhaps be identified with the individual who in 1396 was pursued by John Stoghton in the court of common pleas for a debt of £20. CP40/541, rot. 320. His name was not an unusual one, and he must be distinguished from several contemporary namesakes, perhaps the most prominent of whom was a London goldsmith who acted as a feoffee and executor of Drew Barantyn†. There was also a royal household servant who, like the Londoner, predeceased the MP: CPR, 1413-16, p. 302; 1416-22, p. 41; 1422-9, pp. 57, 160; 1436-41, p. 157; 1446-52, p. 464. No details of Randolf’s family connexions have come to light, but it is possible that he was related to Nicholas Randolf who attested the county elections in 1427 and 1433, or Idonea, perhaps Nicholas’s widow, who in 1436 was assessed in Surrey for tax on an annual income of £5. C219/13/5; 14/4; Surr. Hist. Centre, Woking, Loseley mss, LM/1719. Like several other Bletchingley Members in the period Randolf owed his election to the Parliament to the patronage of Humphrey, earl of Stafford (later created duke of Buckingham). By the autumn of 1428 he had been appointed by Stafford to the office of parker of the comital parks at Postern and Cage, a post which brought with it wages of £4 11s. p.a. He continued to serve as parker until at least 1454 but nothing is recorded of him after this date. Stafford fam. mss, D641/1/22/231, 233-4.