BAMBURGH, John

Bamburgh’s father, William, is probably to be identified with the William Bamburgh who served at Agincourt in the retinue of the East Anglian knight, Sir Thomas Erpingham, and who in 1428 was appointed as one of Erpingham’s executors.7 Battle of Agincourt ed. Curry, 77. Erpingham had been lieutenant of Dover castle under Henry IV, so this appointment may reflect employment in the administration of the Cinque Ports. In February 1435 the King ordered the Exchequer to inspect letters patent of Henry V to exonerate the executors of certain debts and John was included among them, presumably because his father had died after naming his son as his own executor.8 E159/211, brevia, Hil. rot. 12. In the tax assessments of the following year our MP was said to enjoy an income of £40 p.a. from lands in Kent, of which some had presumably been inherited from his father and the rest acquired from the proceeds of a flourishing legal practice.9 E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 14 (iv). Bamburgh’s first appearance in connexion with Kentish affairs occurred when he attested the parliamentary election of October 1422 in Rochester. He may have already by this point have entered the service of Bishop John Langdon, who had been translated to the see of Rochester earlier that year. Bamburgh took up residence at Trottescliffe, one of the bishop’s manors, and, described as ‘iuris peritus’, he received a bequest of 20s. in Langdon’s will 12 years later.10 CCR, 1429-35, p. 180; Reg. Chichele, ii. 557. Doubtless it was his professional skills which had recommended him to Langdon and also led to connexions with other of the bishop’s servants. In 1423, along with William Rickhill†, John Deeping* and one of the wardens of Rochester bridge he was enfeoffed in property in St. Margaret’s parish within the city.11 CP40/651, rot. 459d; 657, rot. 91; 658, rot. 40. Two years later, along with William Cromer* and Alexander Anne*, he was among a group of individuals, probably feoffees, to whom Walter Freebarne and his wife conveyed property elsewhere in Kent,12 CP25(1)/114/298/103. and in 1428 with John Hochon* and Nicholas Wotton I*, he acquired an interest in extensive estates in Sittingbourne and ten neighbouring parishes which had belonged to Alice Corby, the widow of Wotton’s father-in-law.13 CCR, 1422-9, p. 388. It was probably through Hochon and Deeping that Bamburgh became involved in the affairs of Rochester bridge: in 1438-9 his professional services were used by the bridge wardens in securing a writ ad quod damnum relating to the bridge’s property; the following year he was one of the auditors of their accounts; and in September 1445 he was present in Rochester to survey the new work on the bridge.14 Rochester Bridge Trust, wardens’ accts. 1438-40, 1445-6, F 1/41, 42, 45.

Meanwhile, the interests of Rochester bridge may have played a part in Bamburgh’s election as one of the knights of the shire for Kent at Rochester in August 1427. His fellow MP was John Darell*, another man linked with the administration of the bridge, while Hochon was one of the Members for Rochester itself. Similarly, among the 12 attestors were at least three members of the bridge council, John Beaufitz, Henry Hickes* and Deeping.15 C219/13/5. The two shire knights may have already been linked by marriage, for Darell’s son and heir was to marry one of Bamburgh’s sisters-in-law. While Parliament was still in session Bamburgh was given more responsibility in the public affairs of the county. On 12 Feb. he was appointed to the commission of the peace, immediately being one of those named on the quorum, and in July, after Parliament’s close, he was named on his first ad hoc commission, to inspect sewers and waterways. In December 1430 Bamburgh was elected to his second Parliament as knight of the shire. Again, the election took place in Rochester and townsmen and individuals associated with the bridge were prominent among those who attested the election indenture.16 C219/14/3. Nine of the 20 attestors were either from Rochester or were members of the bridge council. In May 1434 he was one of those in Kent who took the oath not to maintain peace-breakers. More unexpectedly, two months later he undertook to serve under the duke of Bedford in France with a retinue of 21 archers. Although this expedition numbered only about 1,400 men, it did include several prominent individuals from the south-east, most notably John, Lord Clinton, and Richard Wydeville*, and it may have been Bamburgh’s connexions with these men, rather than any link to Bedford himself, that explains this isolated period of military service.17 CPR, 1422-9, pp. 388, 425; E403/717, m. 1. It is possible, however, that it was not he but rather his brother and namesake who served abroad.

After this brief foray into military affairs Bamburgh’s public career was rather a colourless one. He attested the Kent elections to the Parliaments of 1435 (when his father-in-law, Edward Guildford, was elected as one of the knights of the shire), 1437, 1442 and 1447, and throughout this period he continued to be named to commissions in the county. Commissions of sewers may have proved a particularly burdensome task: in 1429 and 1449 he sued out writs of supersedeas in respect of process against him at the Exchequer.18 E159/205, brevia, Trin. rot. 8; 225, brevia, Hil. rot. 9d. As one of those j.p.s named to the quorum he regularly presided at the sessions: between his appointment in 1428 and April 1449 he was consistently the most active member of the county bench.19 E101/567/3.

Bamburgh’s private connexions show him to have been one of the leading lawyers in Kent. From early in his career he had been engaged by Joan, Lady Cobham (d.1434) as a feoffee of her inherited estates in 11 counties,20 CP25(1)/292/66/76; Harl. Chs. 46 H 11, 15. and from about 1428 he received an annuity of £2 from Humphrey, earl of Stafford, who before Michaelmas 1442 appointed him steward of his lands in Kent and a member of his council.21 Rawcliffe, 212, 235. It was probably also in a professional capacity that he had first been introduced to his father-in-law, through whom he developed associations throughout the elite of Kentish society. In 1431 William Bertyn, who had married another of Guildford’s daughters, enfeoffed him of lands in Stone on the isle of Oxney, and in 1433 Bamburgh witnessed deeds with Guildford and William Scott I*, his colleague in his second Parliament.22 CCR, 1429-36, pp. 113, 247. Two years later he was again associated with Guildford as one of those to whom Nicholas Carew* conveyed lands in Surrey and Hertfordshire, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of his stepmother. In this transaction he was acting alongside James Fiennes*, the brother of Carew’s father-in-law, Sir Roger*, and a rising force in Kentish society,23 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 44-45; 1447-54, pp. 100-1. on whose behalf he had earlier acted as a feoffee in property in Kent and Windsor forest.24 CPR, 1429-36, p. 56. Bamburgh’s clients included Morgan Meredith* and Sir Reynold Cobham of Sterborough,25 CP25(1)/115/319/635; CPR, 1452-61, p. 214. and another landowner in the county, Alison, widow of John Kirkby† of Romsey in Hampshire, relied heavily on him for legal counsel.26 SC8/181/9009. In 1436, during the long struggle between the city of Canterbury and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine over the manor of Longport, the abbot chose Bamburgh to be one of the arbitrators.27 Canterbury Cath. Archs., Canterbury city recs. CCA-CC-A/A/29. After his appointment in 1439 as one of the executors of the London alderman, Robert Chichele†, the wardens of Rochester bridge, probably eager to secure a portion of the £675 that Chichele had left in his will for charitable works, made him a gift of wine.28 Rochester Bridge wardens’ accts. 1438-9, F 1/41; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 560-1. Sometimes his professional activities involved him in litigation: in Michaelmas term 1448, for example, he was party with Guildford and others to a plea of trespass in the court of common pleas regarding property in which they had been enfeoffed. Similarly, when Bamburgh appeared as a plaintiff in King’s bench in 1449 alongside the chief baron of the Exchequer, John Fray†, it was probably also in the capacity of a feoffee.29 CP40/751, rot. 368d; KB27/751, rot. 5d; 752, rot. 8d.

Bamburgh made his will on 27 Dec. 1449. He asked to be buried in St. Andrew’s cathedral, Rochester, to which he gave £3 for a window in the nave, and left bequests to the monks of the cathedral priory, the Carmelite and Augustinian houses in London and Aylesford, and the fabric of a number of parish churches in Kent. Masses were to be sung for his soul and those of his late wife, Thomasina, his parents and his children, and obsequies were to be arranged at Trottescliffe church a month after his death. The prioress of Higham priory, where Thomasina had been buried, received five marks and each of her nuns 6s. 8d. Bamburgh’s soul was further provided for in the form of alms to poor men and women in various parts of Kent and to the inmates of prisons in London and elsewhere. After the costs of his interment and other related expenses had been met, his executors were also to make a gift to Rochester bridge. Bamburgh made bequests of ten marks each to his brother, also confusingly named John, and sister Agnes Smith. His executors were instructed to honour the agreement he had made with the late Nicholas Wotton concerning the marriage of his daughter, Elizabeth, to Wotton’s son, while a second unmarried daughter, Cecily, was to have his manor called ‘Langerygge’. His remaining property at Trottescliffe, Clive, Meopham, Luddesdown and elsewhere was to be sold ‘in haste’ and the money used towards the marriages of Cecily and a kinswoman, Joan Hall, each of whom were to receive 50 marks. Any residue was to be spent for the benefit of his soul in various local hospitals and prisons in London and Kent. Bamburgh named Richard Wotton, his would-be son-in-law, a local chaplain and two servants as his executors, and Richard’s brother, Nicholas, and John Darell† as supervisors of the will.30 Rochester consist. ct. wills, DRb/PWr 1, ff. 87, 101.

The date of Bamburgh’s death is not known, but he was replaced as steward of the Stafford estates in Kent by Richard Bruyn* on 1 Jan. 1450, and was not reappointed to the bench in the following December. It was almost certainly his brother who was one of a group of four men who received a licence in June 1453 to found an almshouse in Dartford.31 CPR, 1452-61, p. 114.