BEKWITH, John

There is no conclusive evidence to link this Sussex MP with the Bekwith family of Yorkshire, nor specifically with his namesake John Bekwith of Toulston in Newton Kyme. The latter’s father, another John (whose employment as an attorney for such important clients as the dean and chapter of York, Durham cathedral priory, the abbeys of Selby and Fountains, the earl of Westmorland and the town of Kingston-upon-Hull amply testifies to his ability as a lawyer), died in 1434/5, leaving besides his son a widow, Margaret (d.1436), daughter and heiress of John de Eyville of York.4 N.L. Ramsay, ‘English Legal Profession’ (Cambridge Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1985), pp. lxxvi-lxxvii; Test Ebor, ii (Surtees Soc. xxx), 63-64; CPR, 1401-5, p. 354; CCR, 1409-13, p. 132. Nevertheless, there is still a possibility that our John Bekwith was the man who served as feodary of the duchy of Lancaster lordship of Knaresborough for some 20 years from 1441,5 R. Somerville, Duchy, i. 526. Beckwith is a place situated in Knaresborough. for a Yorkshire origin should not be too hastily discounted. It is clear that the MP owed his returns to Parliament for the Sussex boroughs of New Shoreham and Lewes to his connexion with the lord of both boroughs, John Mowbray, 3rd duke of Norfolk, who is known to have often recruited Yorkshiremen to his service. Two such were Robert* and Henry Langton*, the former of whom served the duke as constable of Bramber castle in Sussex, and the latter as one of his officials in the Marshalsea. Our John Bekwith was among those who in June 1447 received from Robert Langton a ‘gift’ of his goods and chattels. Another of the recipients was John Southwell*, also a retainer of the duke, who was to be Bekwith’s companion as an MP for Lewes in the latter’s second Parliament.6 CCR, 1447-54, p. 438.

Bekwith was described as a ‘gentleman’ in Langton’s deed. His first election to Parliament, in 1449, was as a representative for New Shoreham, an impoverished port belonging to Duke John. At some point before the following summer he took up office as a constable of Lewes, a few miles away, and on 7 July 1450 he obtained a royal pardon together with the burgesses of the town to protect them from prosecution. This was at a time of considerable turmoil in the region following the outbreak of Cade’s rebellion, but Bekwith’s pardon should not be interpreted as an admission of culpability on his part; more likely he had procured it as a safeguard in case of false indictment.7 CPR, 1446-52, p. 346. It is a reflection of the disturbed state of Sussex that when he and Southwell were sent by Lewes to the Parliament summoned to Westminster that November, one of the shire knights was Robert Poynings*, who was later alleged to have been Cade’s sword-bearer.

Bekwith continued to serve the duke of Norfolk in the 1450s, receiving from him fees amounting to 4d. a day (£6 1s.4d. p.a.) for exercising the offices of water-bailiff on his Sussex lands and porter of Lewes castle; and he was probably still holding these posts in 1460 when he sat in the Commons for the third time. During this period, and once more in association with John Southwell, he farmed property in Lewes pertaining to the ducal estates.8 Arundel Castle mss, A1869. It is uncertain what happened to Bekwith after the 3rd duke died in 1461, although he may have been kept on by Mowbray’s successor. A John Bekwith joined the household of the new King, Edward IV, as early in the reign as August 1461, although the somewhat lowly position of a sub clerk which he occupied in 1463-4 suggests that this was another man.9 CCR, 1461-8, p. 89; E101/411/13. More likely, our MP was the John Bekwith who with Thomas Dixon esquire was appointed to the scrutiny and survey of weighing of wools shipped in the ports of Boston and Bishop’s Lynn in November 1463. His service to the dukes of Norfolk (prominent landowners in East Anglia) makes this at least possible, as does his association with Gilbert Debenham I*, who hailed from the same region. At an unknown date in the 1450s he, called ‘of Lewes, yeoman’, had been sued by Debenham for failure to render account as his receiver, and as a consequence of his failure to appear in the court of common pleas to answer Debenham in this suit and John Love, a London grocer, in a plea regarding a debt of some £15, he was outlawed. He obtained a pardon of outlawry on 18 Nov. 1465,10 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 303, 420. but is not recorded thereafter.