WOOTTON, Roger I

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 899.

Wootton served as under sheriff of Sir Richard Hastings* in 1414-15, and, as an active local lawyer, it is unlikely that this was his only term in that office. In Michaelmas term 1418 he acted as attorney in the Exchequer for another sheriff, Sir William Bysshopeston*.3 E159/195, adventus Mich. rot. 1. More interestingly, at 10 p.m. on 5 Jan. 1424 his wife, Joan, was murdered by one of the family’s servants, Amice de Hethe. On the following day a coroner’s jury indicted Amice for murder, and she was duly hanged after conviction at the assizes of the following month.4 JUST3/68/2, rot. 6; 203, rot. 53d. Our MP did not long survive the unfortunate Joan, but he did have time to remarry. His second wife, Elizabeth, was sued (as his widow) in Michaelmas term 1427 for detinue of charters by one of the leading townsmen of Warwick, Richard Bedford*. As his executrix, she was still pursuing his creditors in the early 1430s.5 CP40/667, rot. 273; 677, rot. 25; 682, rot. 7.