EDGELEY, Adam, of Plymouth, Devon.

Edgeley was a retainer of Edmund, earl of Stafford, who, in June 1401, gave him an annuity of 66s.8d. payable for life from his Staffordshire estates. Not long afterwards he was made keeper of the earl’s park at Bletchingley in Surrey, for which he received an additional 20s. a year. He appears to have campaigned against either the Scots or the Welsh at this time, since an undated retinue roll compiled between 1397 and 1403 describes him as a yeoman then on active service with the earl. His loyalty to the house of Stafford — and by implication to Henry IV — secured him a place at Court on the earl’s death in the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403; and it was as a yeoman groom to the King that he obtained letters patent in the following November confirming the above-mentioned grants.E101/42/16; Staffs. RO, D641/1/2/48; CPR, 1401-5, pp. 347, 380; CCR, 1402-5, pp. 238, 332.

From this date onwards most of Edgeley’s time was devoted to his duties as a royal official, and he prospered accordingly. In June 1406 he received letters of protection pending his departure for Ireland with Henry IV’s son, Thomas of Lancaster. He was promoted to the rank of yeoman usher of the King’s household in, or before, October 1409, when a wage of 6d. a day was granted to him for life from the issues of Staffordshire. Both Henry V and his son confirmed this award, which by 1420 came to Edgeley from the duchy of Lancaster lordship of Newcastle-under-Lyme.CPR, 1405-8, p. 198; 1408-13, p. 231; 1413-16, p. 97; 1422-9, p. 41; DL29/402/6451. Meanwhile, in January 1410, Edgeley was accorded a further mark of royal favour in the form of a corrody at the Augustinian house of St. Osyth’s in Essex. He still maintained his connexion with the borough of Stafford, however, being paid 20s. by the bailiffs in 1412 from the profits of the local market.CPR, 1408-13, p. 229; Staffs. RO, D641/1/2/50. Thus, although he clearly sat in the Parliaments of May 1413 and December 1421 as a royal courtier, he cannot be dismissed as a mere placeman. On the contrary, the burgesses of Stafford may have been particularly anxious to return a local man with influence in high places. As a yeoman of the royal household, Edgeley accompanied Henry V on his first French expedition in the summer of 1415. He obtained the keepership of Kennington palace four years later, but since he may well have employed a deputy it cannot necessarily be inferred that he had by then returned permanently to England. He appears in November 1420 as a surety at the Exchequer for the farmers of the estates of Hugh Stafford, Lord Bourgchier, and is last mentioned as a representative for Hereford in the Parliament of 1423. His association with this borough was almost certainly established through the dowager countess of Stafford, who enjoyed considerable influence there.E404/31/330; CFR, xiv. 362.