CRECHE (SCRECHE), John

The man who represented Barnstaple in November 1449 has in the past erroneously been identified with John Stretch of Okehampton, a cadet of a gentry family with parliamentary traditions.1 Successive generations of the Stretches are found at Okehampton between at least 1392 and 1445: C139/57/17, 97/15; Devon RO, Okehampton bor. recs., 3248A-0/11/55-56, 78, 91, 93. It is, however, quite clear from the sheriff’s election indenture and the accompanying return (the evidence of which is corroborated by the records of a subsequent dispute over the Barnstaple MPs’ parliamentary wages), that the man in question was called Creche (or Screche).2 C219/15/7; Parliamentarians at Law ed. Kleineke, 260-3.

The Creches hailed from the parish of Ermington in southern Devon. Few details of John’s career, which appears to have been a local one, have been discovered. In 1458 he served as an attorney to transfer seisin of property in Brixton; a decade later he was among the witnesses to a grant of land in nearby Down Thomas (in Wembury), and during the same period he is found serving on a grand jury in a dispute between William Mohun of Puslinch and Andrew Hillersdon.3 Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Brixton parish recs., 723/314; Sloman mss, 457/2; Yonge mss, 107/636.

It is uncertain how Creche came to be returned to Parliament by the borough of Barnstaple, with which he is not known to have had any connexions, but in view of his provenance it is possible that he secured his seat through the good offices of his prominent neighbours, the Fortescues, who in view of their ongoing quarrels with the Stonor family over landholdings in Ermington had reason to seek the return of friends and clients to the Commons. As much as is known for certain is that Creche and his parliamentary colleague, Richard Treweman*, were elected on 30 Oct. 1449 by an assembly presided over by Mayor Richard Newcombe, and including, among others, the merchant Walter Gayncote*, a future MP for Barnstaple. Prior to their election, the two designated candidates had agreed to forgo their traditional wages of 2s. per day and to serve in return for a lump sum of just 6s. 8d. each. Yet, this agreement did not hold good for long, perhaps on account of the inconvenience which the Parliament’s prorogation to Leicester in the following spring represented for the two Barnstaple MPs. Shortly after the hasty dissolution in June 1450, precipitated by the news of Cade’s uprising, Creche and Treweman procured writs de expensis, and sought to employ these in a bid to secure wages at the accustomed rate. As Parliament had lasted for a total of 150 days, the cost faced by the burgesses of Barnstaple was a substantial sum in excess of £30, which they were unwilling, and probably also unable, to pay. The dispute ground on until the end of 1451, but eventually seems to have been settled in favour of the mayor and community of Barnstaple.4 Parliamentarians at Law, 260-3.

Creche appears to have survived into the 1480s. In October 1480 he was among the jurors present at the inquisition post mortem of Richard Fortescue* at Ermington, and it was probably he who in 1483 was serving as one of the feoffees of Thomas Goldsmith of Modbury. The date of his death is not known.5 C140/76/60; Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Modbury deeds, 294/3.