ALDERLEY, John

It is likely that this MP came from a family which derived its name from Alderley in Gloucestershire. An earlier John Alderley had come to Wiltshire when he married Thomasina, the daughter of Oliver Harnham, and received with her in the 1390s a settlement of a remainder interest in lands in the south of the county at West Harnham, East Harnham and Britford, as entailed on them and their issue, to which was later added the manor of Collingbourne Sunton.3 Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 144-5, 171. However, the couple died childless, and in 1414 that John’s brother and heir Richard made a quitclaim of the Harnham properties to John Kirkby†.4 CCR, 1413-19, p. 196; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 521; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 235-6. Our MP was also probably related to Nicholas Alderley, a prominent figure in Gloucestershire, where he twice served as escheator and attested the shire elections five times between 1413 and 1449. As a trusted friend of Sir Maurice Russell† and his daughters and coheirs, Nicholas acted as a feoffee of their estates both in Gloucestershire and other shires of the south-west from 1408 until his death over 50 years later.5 CPR, 1429-36, pp. 367-8, 373, 476; 1452-61, p. 419; CFR, xiii. 131; CCR, 1454-61, pp. 161-2. His landed possessions included Bayswood or ‘Baiesplace’ in Horton, which he held for life by grant of Thomas, Lord Berkeley (d.1417), 6 CIPM, xx. 816; xxv. 286. and across the county border in north-west Wiltshire he had property at Alderton.7 Feudal Aids, v. 253. Towards the end of his life Nicholas was known as ‘of Tresham, Gloucestershire, gentleman’, after claiming to have purchased some disputed lands there and at Kilcote in Hawkesbury. Still living in 1458 he died within the next five years.8 CPR, 1452-61, p. 451; CCR, 1454-61, pp. 269-70; 1461-8, p. 182.

Quite how close John Alderley’s relationship was with Nicholas is not revealed in the surviving records, although it is known that he too came from Gloucestershire and like Nicholas he was associated with Horton, for he appeared at the Exchequer in April 1437 as mainpernor for the lessee of the manor there which Sir Walter de la Pole* had previously held ‘by the courtesy’.9 CFR, xvi. 332. He was living at Almondsbury, in s.-w. Glos. in 1445: CP40/739, rot. 105d. Furthermore, later in his career he was asked by Nicholas to act as his attorney in the law courts at Westminster.10 CP40/773, rot. 465. This was in 1454 when Nicholas was among those attached to answer Thomas Pole† on the charge of conspiracy to have him maliciously indicted for theft of livestock on the estate at Broad Chalk belonging to Sir Robert Hungerford (afterwards 2nd Lord Hungerford) eight years earlier. In the 1430s John was engaged in suits in the common pleas against his debtors from Gloucestershire,11 CPR, 1436-41, p. 3; 1446-52, p. 11. but as he further established his career as an attorney in the same court he increasingly took his briefs from landowners in Wiltshire, regularly acting in this capacity in the years 1444-63.12 CP40/733, 735, 775, 810, att. rots. Alderley was specifically described as ‘one of the attorneys of the bench’ (who enjoyed special privileges of the court) in a plea he brought against a Bristol vintner named Richard Haddon. On that occasion he asserted that on Michaelmas Day 1455 at ‘Chepyngmersshefeld’ in Gloucestershire Haddon had retained him as his counsel, to bring suits on his behalf and act for his defence when required. Although, he said, he served Haddon well for four years, he had never received the promised annual fee of one mark.13 CP40/800, rot. 177; M. Hastings, Ct. of Common Pleas, 11. He brought the suit in Hil. term 1461 when business in the court was slack owing to the civil war.

The day Alderley was retained by Haddon fell during the prorogation of the Parliament in which he was currently representing Great Bedwyn in the Commons. There is nothing to indicate that he was known personally to the burgesses or held property in the neighbourhood of Bedwyn. Nor was he resident there, for he lived some distance away at West Kington, in the same part of north-west Wiltshire as his putative kinsman Nicholas. Described as such, and as a ‘gentleman’, he stood surety in the Exchequer for the alnager of Gloucestershire in May 1457, and for the dean of the collegiate church of Stafford, Henry Filongley* and William Cumberford* in February 1459.14 CFR, xix. 174, 227. Although in the 1460s he sometimes received writs in the common pleas on behalf of the sheriff of Gloucestershire, he continued to be employed at Westminster in suits for Wiltshire litigants, including Sir Edmund Hungerford*.15 KB27/806, rot. 23.

Little more is recorded about Alderley, apart from his further appearances as a mainpernor for lessees of Crown lands in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. On one occasion he was called ‘of London’, but he still lived at West Kington,16 CPR, 1461-7, p. 382; CFR, xx. 160. and is last recorded, in July 1474, at an assize of novel disseisin with regard to a messuage, three cottages and 115 acres of land there. It was then alleged that he and his wife had disseised Thomas Ive of the property, and judgement was given in Ive’s favour, yet the suit was probably collusive, as Ive remitted to the Alderleys the damages awarded against them.17 CP40/880, rot. 371. The case was enrolled at Easter 1482, but there is no indication that Alderley was then still alive (contrary to what Hastings, 110n implies).