ADY, Richard

Nothing is known of the MP’s background, although he may have been related to the Ady family of Malmesbury.4 Walter Ady, a mercer of Malmesbury, was active in the years 1442-68 (C139/106/23; C140/30/50; CP40/748, rot. 375; KB9/134/2, m. 149), and he and Thomas Ady stood surety for the appearance of Walter Everard* in the Commons of 1442 as one of Malmesbury’s representatives: C219/15/2. According to his own testimony (given in December 1471 in the matter of the disputed Wiltshire manor of Huish), in the mid 1440s he was a servant of (Sir) John Seymour I* of Wolf Hall, and as such he had been employed as an attorney by John Bird* to deliver seisin of the manor to feoffees. The purpose of the transaction, he said, was that Bird and his wife might continue to hold Huish for the rest of their lives, and that after their deaths it should revert to Seymour. In testifying in this way Ady was lending his support to Seymour’s widow.5 Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxix. 156-7.

The Seymours were prominent landowners in the vicinity of Marlborough, and owned property in the town itself. It is worthy of note that when Ady was returned by the borough to the Reading Parliament of 1453, he accompanied to the Commons Seymour’s son and heir apparent, John Seymour II*, then elected to represent the county. His tenure of the office of under bailiff of Marlborough is poorly documented, but it may be that it lasted for several years. He probably owed his initial appointment to Margaret of Anjou, or her ministers, as the Marlborough estate then formed part of the queen’s dower.

Ady appeared as a juror at inquisitions post mortem held at Salisbury in December 1458 and at Marlborough in October 1468, the latter following the death of William Zouche*, Lord Zouche.6 C139/171/12; C140/30/53.