STYLER, Walter

Walter was almost certainly a kinsman of Thomas Styler, who attested the Sussex elections to the Parliaments of May 1421, 1429, 1447 (when Walter was returned for Horsham) and November 1449.1 C219/12/5; 14/1; 15/4, 7. The Stylers lived at Rusper, some four miles from Horsham, and three members of the family – two named Thomas, and Walter himself – were among the men of the locality who obtained royal pardons on 7 July 1450, in the immediate aftermath of Cade’s rebellion. All three were then described as gentlemen. While it is possible that they had turned out with the rebels, it is much more likely that they sought pardons as a precautionary measure, to gain exoneration for any activities seen to be suspect at a time of great unrest in their region.2 CPR, 1446-52, p. 368.

Save for his attendance at the elections at Chichester for the Parliament of 1467, nothing more is recorded about the life of this obscure MP. He died at an unknown date before 1480, when the prominent local landowner Richard Lewknor* brought a suit in the court of common pleas alleging that the lawyer William Covert, Thomas Agas of Horsham and another man from Steyning had abducted Walter’s two daughters and coheirs from their home at Rusper, both girls being minors whose marriages pertained to the plaintiff.3 CP40/873, rot. 531.