Members of the Biddulph family were living on the Staffordshire manor of Great Fenton by the late 12th century, although there can be little doubt that the subject of this biography claimed his immediate descent from a line of Newcastle burgesses. It was as John, son of Rogert Biddulph, that he was admitted to the freedom of the borough upon payment of a 20s. fine in 1402-3, perhaps at the time of his marriage to the widow of one of Newcastle’s most eminent residents, the former mayor and MP, Richard Buntable. For the next ten years, at least, Biddulph and his wife were involved in a number of lawsuits arising from the administration of the deceased’s estate, and even found themselves at odds with the executors of another influential Newcastle burgess, Thomas Thickness. In the spring of 1411 Biddulph also began an action of account against Stephen Hale, his former receiver, but he was no more successful here than in any of his other attempts to obtain redress at law.
Sir Roger Aston
†) of the estates of the late Hugh Stafford, Lord Bourgchier, during the minority of the latter’s kinsman, the earl of Stafford. Hugh’s widow subsequently married Sir Lewis Robessart (jure uxoris Lord Bourgchier), who at some point before March 1431, chose Biddulph as a trustee of the manor of Stanford Rivers, which he himself held to the earl’s use.
When he made his second appearance in the Commons, Biddulph was vainly attempting to recover a chest of documents from one William Chamber, a yeoman of Fauld in Staffordshire. Three years later, in 1424, he began another lawsuit against a group of Cheshire men who allegedly owed him 40s. Together with
John Delves
† and Hugh Erdeswyk, he was named as a feoffee by John Bressy’s widow, Annabel, at about this time. But no more is heard of him after April 1433, when he witnessed the inspeximus of a charter conveying land in Cold Norton.