ACTON, Laurence

Acton came from a family with a long and distinguished pedigree. The senior branch had held estates in Acton and nearby Old Felton, some distance to the north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, since the early thirteenth century, while the cadet line, of which our MP was a member, had been involved in the affairs of Newcastle-upon-Tyne since the early years of the fourteenth. Acton’s great-great grandfather, William Acton†, had served as bailiff there between 1336 and 1351 and represented the borough in at least two Parliaments; and his great-grandfather, Laurence Acton† (d.1386/7), and grandfather, another Laurence Acton† (d.1410), had represented the town in at least seven Parliaments between them. Although Acton’s father is not known to have followed this tradition of parliamentary service, he did serve as bailiff in 1399 (he was among the last to be chosen as such, for in the following year the borough was incorporated as the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), and there can be no doubt that the Actons numbered among the borough’s oldest and most important families.6 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 9; J. Hodgson, Hist. Northumb. v. 467; vii. 369.

It is not known when Acton’s father died, but he had presumably done so by September 1424 when our MP was chosen as sheriff of Newcastle. Four years later the young Laurence was elected for his first term as mayor, and thereafter he not only maintained a central place in the town’s affairs but also took a role in county administration. From his father he had inherited the manor of Hazon (in the parish of Shilbottle), near the family’s ancient home at Acton, with other property nearer to Newcastle at Cramlington, Blaydon-on-Tyne and Jesmond. These holdings justified his appointment in November 1431 as escheator of Northumberland, yet Newcastle was the centre of his activities.7 Hodgson, vii. 369; Arch. Aeliana, n.s. i. 30; CFR, xvi. 79. He represented his home town in the Parliament of 1431, some months before his appointment as escheator, and, while holding that office, was again returned to the Parliament of 1432. Interestingly, in contravention of the electoral statutes, he attested the county elections in respect of both these assemblies.8 C219/14/1, 2.

Aside from his appointment as escheator between these two Parliaments, there were other correlations between his nomination to administrative roles and his parliamentary service. At the end of the 1431 Parliament he was named as one of the assessors of contributions in Newcastle to the subsidy voted by that assembly. This contravened the condition attached to the grant by the Commons that no MP should serve as assessor, and, on 19 Nov. 1432, four months after his second Parliament, he appeared in person before the barons of the Exchequer successfully to plead a writ of excuse.9 CPR, 1429-36, p. 139; E159/208, brevia Mich. rot. 24, recorda Mich. rot. 28d. More welcome to him was his nomination on 11 May of that year, the day before the opening of Parliament, as a customs collector in Newcastle. This office he exercised in person, frequently receiving rewards at the Exchequer for his diligence, and it was as customs collector that he was twice commissioned, in March 1436 and May 1439, to arrest shipping for the transport of large military retinues to France.10 E403/729, m. 12; 734, m. 9; 736, m. 14; CPR, 1429-36, p. 534; 1436-41, p. 313.

In September 1432 Acton was again elected as mayor and served successive terms. None the less, although he was very active in the town’s administration, in other respects his career has the profile of that of one of the county gentry. Not only did he serve as escheator and attest three county elections, but in February 1433 he was named to an influential commission, headed by the earl of Northumberland, to inquire into concealments in the three northernmost counties, and in the following year his name was included in a list of the Northumberland gentry important enough to take the parliamentary oath against maintaining peace breakers.11 CPR, 1429-36, pp. 276, 396.

In December 1436 Acton was returned to represent Newcastle for the third time. On this occasion his departure for Westminster may have been delayed, for on 20 Jan. 1437 (the day before Parliament’s opening) he was among the three named aldermen of Newcastle-upon-Tyne who were present at the incorporation of the town’s skinners into a company.12 C219/15/1; Welford, i. 295. Another election as mayor followed soon after the end of this assembly, and, given the intensity of his activities in the 1430s, other elections would no doubt have come to him had his career not been cut short by premature death. After a career of only about 15 years, he died shortly before 28 Oct. 1439 when a writ of diem clausit extremum was issued to the escheator of Northumberland.13 CFR, xvii. 103. If the writ was acted upon, the resulting inquisition does not survive. Nor has his will been discovered, although later litigation shows that he made one, appointing as his executors a local chaplain, Thomas Rothley, and two Northumberland yeomen, John Watson and Thomas Hirde. In Michaelmas term 1446 Rothley appeared before the barons of the Exchequer and successfully pleaded a pardon, dated 1 Nov. that year, exonerating him from rendering account for Acton’s customership. At the same time, Acton’s son and heir, also Laurence, purchased a similar pardon.14 E159/223, recorda Mich. rot. 45; C67/39, m. 18. The latter appears to have died without issue, for, on chronological grounds, it is more likely that the heiress of the family, Eleanor, who made a striking match to Sir Ralph Percy (b.c.1425), one of the many younger sons of the earl of Northumberland (d.1455), was our MP’s daughter rather than his grand-daughter.15 G. Tate, Hist. Alnwick, i. 416; Hist. Northumb. v. 463.