EVERARD, John II (d.1445), of Salisbury, Wilts.

Perhaps descended from the John Everard who held land at Stratford-sub-Castle, on the outskirts of Salisbury, in the 14th century,VCH Wilts. vi. 64, 198, 200. this John is first mentioned in 1410, when he was acting as a summoner for the sheriff of Wiltshire. It may have been he who seven years later shared an Exchequer lease of certain manors in Devon and Somerset, previously held by Katherine, widow of Humphrey Stafford, esquire. The fact that one of the sureties for the co-lessees was Robert Hill of Spaxton, Somerset, would point to an identification with the John Everard who was not only one of Hill’s tenants at Spaxton, but also (in 1423) a beneficiary of his will. That this was indeed the case, is further suggested by the MP’s undoubted connexion with Sir William Sturmy of Wolf Hall, with whom Hill had long been on amicable terms. Early in 1420 Everard, then described as ‘of Salisbury’, provided securities for Sturmy on the occasion of the latter’s receipt of custody of the manors of Corsham and Ludgershall and the alien priory of Clatford. Sturmy also had custody of the borough of Great Bedwyn at this time, as well as being the most important local landowner, so his influence was perhaps useful in obtaining Everard’s election to Parliament for the borough in December of the same year. (In this connexion, it is significant that his fellow parliamentary burgess was John Benger, another of Sturmy’s associates.)CCR, 1409-13, p. 19; CFR, xiv. 206, 321-2; Hylle Cart. (Som. Rec. Soc. lxviii), 20, 22, 30; Som. Med. Wills (ibid. xvi), 405.

In 1421 Everard was elected in Salisbury to the city council of 24, and two years later he was present at the Salisbury elections to the Parliament to which he was himself returned for Old Sarum. It was probably he who, in 1427, went surety for the parliamentary attendance of Richard Baker, burgess-elect for Cricklade, and who was present at the Wiltshire elections of 1429. Five years later he was among the county gentry considered important enough to take the general oath not to maintain those who broke the peace. Everard is recorded as attending meetings of the convocation of the city of Salisbury in 1429, 1434 and 1440 (in which last year he was serving as bailiff); and he contributed 6s.8d. towards the fee farm of the city in 1441-2 and twice that amount two years later. Since he is not mentioned in the Salisbury records after 1444, it is possible that he was the verderer of Clarendon forest who died in February 1445.Salisbury ledger bk. A, ff. 81, 85, 93, 101, 122-3, 129, 137; C219/13/5. 14/1; CPR, 1429-36, p. 371; CCR, 1441-7, p. 247. The citizen of Salisbury was evidently a different man from the John Everard who was connected with Calne after 1437. In that year this other Everard attended the county court at Wilton, and stood surety for the attendance in Parliament of John Justice*, burgess-elect for Calne; and in 1442 he did likewise on behalf of Robert Giles. With Justice and Giles, he was among those for whose welfare prayers were to be offered in the chantry founded in Calne in 1446. In Feb. 1449 he once again stood surety for the MPs for Calne and, in 1455, witnessed the borough’s indenture of return: C219/15/1, 2, 6, 16/3; CPR, 1441-6, p. 459.