RABY, John

John ‘de Raby’ was elected to represent Appleby in the Parliament of February 1426. This is the only known reference, but his surname suggests a connexion with the Neville earls of Westmorland, who had their principal residence at Raby, in Durham. If so, it may not be coincidental that he sat in a Parliament in which a Cumberland MP, Sir Peter Tilliol*, an executor of Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland (d.1425), presented a petition concerning the late earl’s affairs.1 C219/13/4; RP, iv. 469-70 (cf. PROME, x. 315). There is no reason to identify him with the namesake who was in the garrison at Argentan under Sir Richard Haryngton* in the early 1440s: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fr 25776/1588, 1639. Since the earls of Westmorland held Appleby’s fee farm by royal grant, they might be expected to have had an influence on the borough’s representation. On the other hand, there is no evidence that they used that influence, and our MP can only very tentatively be assigned to their service.