Cumberworth succeeded to the family estates at Theddlethorpe, Stain and Somerby in or just before July 1405, being then preoccupied with the task of executing his father’s will. In it, he had been offered preference over any other persons wishing to purchase Robert’s effects, but we do not know if he took advantage of this opportunity. He certainly spent some time dealing with the Exchequer officials who were concerned about his father’s failure to appear on a royal commission, and was duly awarded a writ of supersedeas to halt their proceedings. Not much is known about him before this date, although he had by then twice acted as a mainpernor in Chancery, once in August 1401 and again in February 1405. He must, however, have still been comparatively young, for his involvement in the county community remained limited for several years. In the autumn of 1406 he was made a trustee of land in Beesby and two years later he witnessed a local property transaction, but otherwise he had little to do with the affairs of his neighbours. Yet he was not without influential friends, as can be seen from a settlement made by him of the manor of Somerby in April 1410, when he called upon Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, and Sir Robert Hilton (to whom he was related by marriage) to be his feoffees.
No doubt because of his preoccupation with these two distinguished captives, Cumberworth does not seem to have been particularly active in local government during the 1420s. He did, however, witness the electoral return for Lincolnshire to the Parliament of 1423; and he also attested a considerable number of local deeds, notably for Sir John Keighley and Lord Willoughby. His relations with Keighley were, however, somewhat strained as a result of a dispute between the knight and Walter Tailboys (another of his trustees) over land in Theddlethorpe. The quarrel went before arbitrators in February 1427, Sir Thomas offering joint securities of 1,000 marks as an earnest of Tailboy’s readiness to accept the award, and later being present when Keighley solemnly repudiated certain slanders of which he was found guilty. He had previously been involved in litigation of his own for the recovery of a debt of £10 13s.4d. from the vicar of Winksley in Yorkshire, but the case was abandoned because of the defendant’s failure to appear in court. The same fate overtook another lawsuit brought by him in about 1430 against a Yorkshire gentleman who owed him £10, and who likewise refused to answer successive writs of summons.
Fortunately, in view of these unpaid debts and expenses, Cumberworth was a wealthy man with a landed income assessed in 1436 at £160 a year. Some of these revenues derived from the manor of Argam and its extensive appurtenances in the East Riding, which, on the death of his maternal grandfather, Sir William Ergum, in about 1403, had gone to his aunt, Gillian Aske. She evidently died without issue, since by 1432, at the latest, this property, together with the advowson of the local church, was in his hands. It was also from Sir William that Cumberworth inherited the Lincolnshire manor of Searby-cum-Owmby. Moreover, in addition to the land left to him by his father at the beginning of the century, he also owned estates at Burgh, Normanby, Scremby, Wainfleet, Clixby and Howsham, some of which may have come to him through marriage. All these properties were well stocked with swine and cattle, but it appears that Cumberworth derived most of his income from sheep farming. His will of 1451 contains bequests of well over 330 ewes and wethers, which represented the pick of his flock. This document also refers to a ‘place’ in London as well, but nothing more is known about his interests in the City.
Cumberworth’s attention was, however, increasingly given over to works of piety, of which the most notable was the foundation of a chantry at Somerby church where he had already decided to be buried. The endowment was part of a wider scheme for improving the finances of the three churches of Somerby, Argam and Stain, upon which by royal letters patent of 1437 and 1438 he was permitted to settle revenues worth six marks a year. A chantry priest took up residence in the autumn of 1439, and five years later Sir Thomas obtained a licence enabling him to set aside another sum of six marks to support both the cantarist and a chaplain there. For the rest of his life he proved a more than generous patron, providing books, vestments, plate and other lavish gifts, which must have involved a considerable financial outlay.
I will that my body ly still, my mowth opyn, vnhild, xxiiij oywrs, and after laid on bere with owtyn anything theropon to couer it bot a sheit and a black cloth with a white cross of cloth of gold: bot I wyl my kyste be made and stande by; and at my bereall gift it to hym that fillis my graue.
Lincoln Diocese Docs. 45.
Cumberworth’s contempt for funerary pomp was but one aspect of a deeply religious nature, which went far beyond the conventional piety of many of his contemporaries. As his will shows, he possessed a notable collection of relics (including ‘a peis of the peler that owere lorde was skowrged on’ and ‘a pais of the Roche that ouere lady mylk es in’) and devotional literature, although he was also the owner of a copy of The Canterbury Tales, which passed to Elizabeth Constable, the wife of his great-nephew. In addition to legacies of money well in excess of £300, he left munificient gifts to religious houses and churches throughout Lincolnshire. In keeping with his somewhat austere piety, the most favoured recipients were Carthusian monks both there and in London, but his largesse was widely distributed. Since he left no children he could afford to be particularly generous in this regard, yet his kinsfolk, the Constables, were certainly not forgotten, receiving quantities of jewellery, plate and other luxury goods, as well as the utensils and livestock from his various farms. He died on 22 Mar. 1451, leaving as his next heir his great-nephew,
Sir Robert Constable
† of Flamborough, whom he had previously made supervisor of his will.