FENNE, John atte

Atte Fenne is not recorded before his first election to the Commons, in which he sat for his home town of Wilton. He was present at the county court held at Wilton in the following year, 1427, then standing surety for the appearance at Parliament of William Warwick*, one of those elected for Salisbury,4 C219/13/5. and on four subsequent occasions he attested the indentures of return for Wiltshire and its boroughs. Little is known about his property holdings in Wilton, save that in the 1430s he farmed the tolls levied at ‘Ayleswade’ bridge.5 SC6/1062/2. In the assessments for the tax on incomes from land, made in 1451, he was listed with a relatively modest £3 p.a.,6 E179/196/118. and his occupation remains uncertain for his status was given on different occasions as ‘husbandman’, ‘gentleman’ and ‘franklin’, the last on his appointment as a collector of parliamentary subsidies towards the end of his life.7 CP40/700, rot. 191 (‘gentleman’ when sued by Edmund Penston* for a debt of £5); 715, rot. 620 (‘husbandman’ when facing a more serious charge regarding the theft of goods worth £10); CFR, xviii. 124. The loss of many records of the borough of Wilton in the early decades of the century means that atte Fenne’s office-holding is poorly documented. It seems likely, however, that he had held an administrative post before his earliest election to Parliament. Perhaps this was as deputy to the portreeve Robert Frye†, who as the secondary in the privy seal office was often absent at Westminster and who retired to an ecclesiastical living in Leicestershire in 1425.8 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 143-5; SC6/1062/2.

That atte Fenne was among those listed in Wiltshire to take the generally-prescribed oath against maintenance imposed in the spring of 1434, suggests that he was then occupying an important post in his home town.9 CPR, 1429-36, p. 371. At the elections to the Parliament of 1437 he stood surety for John Brown*, one of those returned for Wilton,10 C219/15/1. and the two men were again associated, most likely during William Hull’s mayoralty of 1440-1, when they and the mayor issued demands that the prior of Ivychurch should perform the office of bailiff and portreeve in the borough according to custom. This demand ran contrary to the King’s writ, and Walter, Lord Hungerford†, and (Sir) John Stourton II*, to whom had been assigned the governance of the priory, petitioned the bishop of Bath and Wells as chancellor to insist that the three men come to the Chancery to explain their actions.11 Procs. Chancery Eliz. ed. Caley and Bayley, p. xxxix (transcript of C1/1/52). In that same mayoral year atte Fenne received expenses of 6s. 8d. for riding to London on the town’s business, a journey perhaps occasioned by the Chancery suit,12 Wilton stewards’ accts. G25/1/88. which may also have been a factor in his second election to Parliament at the beginning of 1442. Significantly, while the Parliament was in session the prior of Ivychurch alleged in the court of common pleas that the MP had broken into the priory’s closes at Whaddon to steal timber and crops, and at the same time Lord Hungerford’s son, Sir Robert Hungerford, accused him and Brown of other serious trespasses.13 CP40/724, rots. 49, 298. It seems likely that the disputes were all connected.

Later in 1442 atte Fenne was elected mayor of Wilton, and he subsequently stood surety for the borough’s MPs elected to the Parliament of 1449 (Feb.): William Forster III* and John Uffenham*.14 C219/15/6. The latter, a lawyer, had been his companion in the Commons of 1442, and they were associates in other respects. That April atte Fenne witnessed a conveyance of property in Wilton made to Uffenham by William Kayser*,15 CCR, 1447-54, p. 167. and both he and Uffenham were creditors of a local chaplain called John Green, whom they sued (albeit unsuccessfully) in the common pleas.16 CPR, 1452-61, p. 3. Furthermore, our MP was to ask Uffenham to be an executor of his will. On occasion atte Fenne acted as a juror at inquisitions post mortem held in Wiltshire, doing so following the deaths of Sir Hugh Luttrell†, Beatrice, wife of Sir Gilbert Talbot, Richard Milborne* and John Lye*, and he assisted in the formal assignment of dower to Margaret, widow of Richard, Lord Grey of Wilton, in April 1452.17 CIPM, xxiii. 51; C139/130/7, 142/19, 146/12, 149/25.

In the indenture drawn up on 20 June 1455 for the return of Wilton’s MPs to the Parliament meeting on 9 July that year, the first name of the ‘atte Fenne’ who was returned as the colleague of Giles Dacre*, is now illegible. It was once thought to be John, but the record of the election itself, conducted at Wilton four days earlier, gives the elected representatives as Robert atte Fenne and John Makk. Presumably, Dacre replaced Makk before the indenture was drafted.18 C219/16/3; OR, i. 352; Wilton gen. entry bk. G25/1/21, f. 1. John atte Fenne may have already been dead. During the Michaelmas term his executors (Christine atte Fenne, presumed to be his widow, Robert atte Fenne, probably his son, and Uffenham) brought suits in the court of common pleas against his creditors.19 CP40/779, rot. 618d.