FYNDERNE, William

More can be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 152-4.

In the accounts of the dean and canons of St. George’s chapel, Windsor, Fynderne is recorded as ‘legis peritus’ of the council of the duke of Bedford, and as such in receipt of an annual fee of 66s. 8d. for his counsel and for holding courts for the college in the years from 1429 to the duke’s death in 1435. Thereafter, he continued to be retained as legal counsel by St. George’s, albeit at a reduced fee of 40s. a year.4 St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, recs. XV.48.9, 12-16, 18. Although Fynderne was removed from the Berkshire bench in 1443, after serving as a member of the quorum for over 20 years, he was still considered potentially fit for duty as a juror at the trial for treason of Thomas Kerver, conducted in the following year.5 KB9/245, m. 44.

In the will of his aged widow Elizabeth dated 18 Oct. 1463, bequests she made to her son, the attainted Lancastrian Sir Thomas Fynderne, were conditional on his submission to the good lordship of Edward IV, whose accession she had accepted. In accordance with our MP’s wishes, she had built an almshouse at Childrey, and now instructed her heir, her grandson Thomas Kingston, not to do anything which might trouble the almsmen.6 PCC 2 Godyn (PROB11/5, ff. 12v-13).