BRISTOWE, Richard

More can be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, i. 357.

Bristowe, a minor lawyer, was probably the son of Richard Bristowe, the younger brother of the Robert Bristowe† who represented Carlisle in five Parliaments between 1386 and 1401. It is possible that the Appleby MP of March 1416 was the father, but it is more likely that only one career is involved, namely that of the son, slowly rising to a prominence that merited appointment to the county bench. If so, his election for Appleby came early in a long career.4 JUST1/1500, rot. 35d; The Commons 1386-1421, i. 357 (where it is assumed that the father was the Appleby MP); C219/11/8. By 1419, like his putative uncle Robert, our MP had property in Carlisle, for he was sued in the mayor’s court there for arrears of rent of 18s. 4d. owed to Thomas Coldale. This helps explain his election for the city in 1423, but whether he was the choice of the citizens is open to question. In the election indenture, a combined return for both county and borough, the names of the borough’s Members have been added in a blank left when the document was first drawn up. Further, Bristowe’s name has been written over erasures both in the indenture and on the dorse of the writ ordering the election. Since his fellow MP, William Whiteheved*, was also from outside Carlisle, it may be that no citizens could be found to serve, and the same consideration may also explain his election in 1433 with another outsider, Richard Bewley*.5 H. Summerson, Med. Carlisle, i. 367; C219/13/2.

Bristowe’s readiness to either seek or accept election for two boroughs owed something to the fact that he was a lawyer. His status as such is demonstrated by his appointment to the quorum of the peace and the frequency with which he pursued actions in person in the court of common pleas. Most of these were the pleas for minor debts common to lawyers in a small way of business, but some were more interesting. In 1424 he was plaintiff as executor of his kinsman, John Bristowe†, who had represented Carlisle in the Parliament of 1397 (Sept.); and in 1436 he claimed damages against four yeomen of Dalston, a few miles south of Carlisle, for killing a domesticated deer of his at nearby Cumdivock.6 CP40/655, rot. 553d; 700, rot. 271. Other suits provide a clue to his landholdings. In 1437 he accused a yeoman of close-breaking at Lower Braithwaite, a few miles to the south of Carlisle, and his appearances as a defendant show that, at least in the later part of his career, he lived at neighbouring Middlesceugh. In 1444 he was described as a gentleman resident there when sued for close-breaking at nearby Ivegill by Richard Restwold*, and in 1451 he was accorded the same designation when another of the county’s leading gentry, John Skelton II*, claimed a debt of £10 against him.7 CP40/707, rot. 150d; 734, rot. 469; 761, rot. 21d. Little evidence survives to delineate his more positive connexions with the wealthier gentry. In 1425 he was joint-plaintiff with Skelton’s kinsman, Richard Skelton of Skelton, and in 1444 he stood pledge in the court of King’s bench for the payment of a fine by Richard Bellingham*.8 CP40/657, rot. 207; CP40/763, rot. 211. Little else is known of him, although in 1434 he was considered significant enough to be named among those Cumberland men required to take the parliamentary oath against maintenance. He has not been traced in the records after Michaelmas term 1451 when a writ of outlawry was issued against him at Skelton’s suit.9 CPR, 1429-36, p. 383; KB27/732, fines rot. 2.