MORE, Roger

Further information may be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 771-2.

Extant borough and manorial records relating to Wycombe reveal the name of Roger’s wife and confirm that the Thomas More who sat for the borough in the Parliament of 1450 was indeed his son.

Although a freeman, Roger also held copyhold lands of Bassetsbury, the duchy of Lancaster manor that encompassed most of the borough of Chipping Wycombe. His holdings at Wycombe were more extensive than previously noticed, for they included a meadow called Upper Kingsmead, an acre of land known as ‘Lordes acre’ and other lands which he held jointly with John Corbrygge junior. He and Corbrygge appeared in the manor court in the spring of 1425 to acquire a lease of these latter properties. Comprising a toft and virgate known as ‘Dellys’ and other lands called ‘Broneys’, they afterwards held them in association with their wives. More was also a tenant of the Hospitallers’ manor of Temple Wycombe, from which he appears to have held a mill.4 St. George’s Chapel, XV/15/1, mm. 7, 21, 30d; DL29/655/10597, mm. 2, 2d; Centre for Bucks. Studies, Temple Wycombe ct. roll, 1415-32, D176/4, mm. 3d, 4.

Roger’s association with the Barton family did not end with the death of John Barton I* in 1434, since he appeared in the Chancery as a mainpernor for the latter’s sister, Isabel Ampcotes, five years later, when she began a suit there against two feoffees of her eldest brother, the late John Barton†. One of the defendants was Thomas More, but this was probably Thomas More of Buckingham rather than the MP’s son.5 C1/9/137. More prestigiously, Roger was also associated with the Buckinghamshire knight, Sir Thomas Sackville*. A co-feoffee with the knight, apparently on behalf of Wm Clerk†, he also acted in the same capacity for Sackville in the mid 1430s.6 Worcs. Archs., Hampton (Pakington) mss, 705: 349/12946/494144, 494402; CP25(1)/292/68/189.

While it is not known exactly when Roger died, a lawsuit in the court of common pleas shows that he was no longer alive at the end of 1445. It was brought by the executors of his no longer extant will, his son Thomas and John Redeshull*. In Trinity term 1447 the pair alleged that John and William Hide of Oxfordshire had wrongfully taken sheets, towels and other household goods belonging to his personal estate on 12 Dec. 1445.7 CP40/746, rot. 162d; 748, rot. 393; 751, rot. 208d.

In the autumn of 1452 Joan Corbrygge, the widow of Roger’s former associate, appeared in the manor court of Bassetbury to surrender her interest in the lease her late husband and the MP had acquired in 1425. She did so to allow the King, lord of the manor in his capacity as duke of Lancaster, to make a new lease of the same properties, to herself for life with reversion jointly to Roger’s son, Thomas, to her own son, William Corbrygge, and to their wives.8 XV/15/1, m. 6.

The fact that Eleanor More did not appear in the court alongside Joan Corbrygge may indicate that she was no longer alive at that date. She was certainly dead at the beginning of 1456, when her son bound himself in £40 to John Blakpoll* and other leading burgesses of Chipping Wycombe. The purpose of the bond was to guarantee that Thomas More would set aside 6s. 6d. p.a. for a lamp in Wycombe parish church and convey a further annual rent of 4d. to the vicar of Wycombe and his successors in perpetuity. In return, they were to say special prayers for the souls of both his parents from the church’s pulpit every Sunday.9 Centre for Bucks. Studies, CH1 T/6/12.