BARON, William

Members of the Baron family were prominent in Reading from the late fourteenth century, and included Walter Baron, the bailiff of the town from 1410 until after Michaelmas 1419.7 CAD, iv. A8539; C219/12/2, 3; Berks. RO, Reading deeds, R/AT 1/97. Our MP was the son of a namesake who was a tax collector in Berkshire in 1407, made a contribution to re-roofing the church of St. Laurence at Reading in 1410, and was buried in St. Mary’s church there in 1416.8 C. Kerry, Hist. St. Laurence, 22; VCH Berks. iii. 369, 377. Acting as an executor of his father’s will, William appeared in the court of common pleas with his mother, his co-executor, in the Michaelmas term of 1422 to sue certain debtors of the deceased. His mother made him an executor of her will, too, in 1426, and left him the residue of her goods.9 CP40/647, rot. 182d; PCC 3 Luffenham.

Baron’s career as a teller at the Exchequer took him away from Reading in the 1420s, and even though he held property in the town he did not seek admission to the guild merchant until just before his election to Parliament on 7 Jan. 1431. It seems likely that he did so in order to comply with the statutory requirements for borough representatives. The mayor and commonalty exempted him from an entry fine, perhaps in part payment of his parliamentary wages.10 Berks. RO, Reading cofferers’ accts. R/FA/2, no. 20; C219/14/2. In the same year he acquired premises in Wood Street, and although he gave them up again a few months later, he had holdings in the same street in the early 1460s.11 CAD, i. A560-2, 574-5, 586; Reading deeds, R/AT 1/118, 120. Baron never occupied any of the local offices, yet he always maintained his links with his home town. For 45 years, from 1435 until his death, he paid to the guild the small annual rent of 12d. for an inn called Le Bell, and 4d. p.a. for a ‘great stable’ in ‘le Flexchepyng’, and from 1447 he paid 2s. p.a. for a tenement in Castle Street, to which was added five years later a garden previously held by William Pernecote*.12 Cofferers’ accts. nos. 25-45. He acquired two messuages and two acres of land in Reading in 1447 from Thomas Clerk II*, and in the late 1440s he also leased land in Burghfield nearby from Thomas Stonor II*.13 CP25(1)/13/85/11; SC6/750/10. While Baron’s income from land must have fluctuated considerably in the course of his long career, in 1436, not long after his only Parliament, he was assessed for taxation on lands worth £27 p.a. in Berkshire and Dorset.14 E159/212, recorda Hil. rot. 14 (viii).

Baron, who had joined the staff of the Exchequer six years before he sat in the Commons, most likely owed his election by the burgesses of Reading to his potentially influential position at Westminster. His post as one of the four tellers, which earned him 3d. a day, sometimes proved demanding. Together with other Exchequer officials he was asked to stay on at Westminster and London during the summer vacation of 1427 in order to receive from the corporation of London and a number of individuals a loan of 9,000 marks granted to the duke of Gloucester in relief of his duchess, Jacqueline of Hainault. They were paid £13 6s. 8d. for their labour.15 Issues of the Exchequer ed. Devon, 403. In the next year Baron was appointed controller of the petty custom in the port of London, on condition that he would write the rolls in his own hand, doing nothing by deputy. Thus, he was put in charge of an important source of revenue for the Crown.16 CPR, 1422-9, p. 521. Precisely why he and the three other tellers were required to enter recognizances in £1,000 to Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury, on 3 Dec. 1429, is unclear, but no doubt it had something to do with the recent changes in government and plans for the King’s journey to France for his coronation. Significantly, the four men made a ‘loan’ to the Crown of the same sum of money a few days later.17 CCR, 1429-35, p. 31; E401/723, m. 18. That same month Baron began his long involvement with the supervision of forces destined for Normandy; as a commissioner to take musters, his role was to check the size of retinues assembled for embarkation before disbursing very substantial funds from the Exchequer for their wages, and his responsibilities often took him to south-coast ports.18 E403/709, m. 7; 715, m. 14; 719, m. 13; 721, mm. 9, 16; 723, m. 6; 734, m. 11; 736, m. 18; 749, m. 21; 793, m. 18. At the same time he continued to supervise the collection of revenues. In February 1430 he was appointed controller of the great custom and the subsidy on wools, hides and woolfells in London, again with the statutory proviso against the employment of a deputy, so he was holding this post as well as his Exchequer office when returned to the Commons of 1431. His controllership was confirmed in March 1432 when the King returned home, and, performing his duties assiduously, he occupied it for 15 years more.19 CPR, 1429-36, pp. 46, 189.

In July 1432 Baron accompanied the former treasurer Walter, Lord Hungerford†, to France, to guard the sum of £2,500 which they took with them for the Regent of France, the duke of Bedford. Baron also had charge of the £3,440 for payment of the second quarter’s wages of Hungerford’s force.20 PPC, iv. 125; E403/703, m. 15. By then he had risen in status, and it was as an ‘esquire’ that he was listed among the men of Berkshire required to take the oath against maintenance in the spring of 1434. Armigerous rank was generally accorded him in royal grants thereafter.21 CPR, 1429-36, p. 402. He crossed the Channel again in October 1435, charged with the task of mustering the garrisons at Calais and assessing the number of soldiers remaining there at the death of their captain, Bedford, and he was there again a year later. In July 1437 he was paid £23 18s. for his costs and wages for 22 days in safeguarding the sum of £2,554 paid to Lord Willoughby’s army when it mustered at Portsmouth.22 E403/723, m. 15; 727, m. 9.

Baron was regularly and generously rewarded for working at the Exchequer at Westminster during vacations and for taking on additional tasks as directed by the treasurer. On occasion he received as much as £20 in addition to his wages, and when he was away on special duties he was paid as much as 5s. a day.23 E403/725, m. 9; 727, m. 10; 731, m. 12; 733, m. 16; 736, m. 18; 740, m. 5; 741, m. 12; 743, m. 16; 745, mm. 9, 13; 747, m. 16; 749, m. 9; 757, m. 11; 765, m. 11; 769, m. 9; 773, mm. 7, 16; 775, mm. 4, 5, 7; 786, m. 14; 793, m. 14; 810, m. 2; 814, m. 6. More long-term rewards began to come his way as Henry VI took control of the exercise of royal patronage. In February 1437 he obtained at the Exchequer the farm of the manor of Whitchurch, Oxfordshire, to hold for ten years, and although the terms of the lease were fixed in the following November at £10 p.a. on 1 Feb. 1438 the manor was granted to him for life, rent-free.24 CFR, xvi. 317; xvii. 22; CPR, 1436-41, p. 130. The estate comprised various other properties in Berkshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire, and this caused him some trouble when, in 1443, Edward Langford* esquire (himself a native of Reading), brought a suit against him in the court of common pleas, alleging that these properties belonged to him by inheritance. On 18 July Exchequer officials were ordered to search for records for the King’s attorney to produce in Chancery in support of the Crown’s title and the validity of Baron’s patent.25 CP40/728, rots. 131, 131d; E404/59/299, 301. This was evidently achieved to Baron’s satisfaction. Meanwhile, on 25 Nov. 1441 he had taken out letters of exemption from holding office against his will. This did not mean he wished to resign from his lucrative posts. On 28 Apr. 1442 he and William Malbon were granted in survivorship £20 p.a. from the great custom in London, of which Baron was still controller; his appointment was confirmed in September following. Then, on 20 Apr. 1445 he and two other tellers at the Exchequer (Robert Whitgreve* and Thomas Pound*) were each awarded an annuity of £10 for life, in consideration of their good service (which in Baron’s case now extended to 20 years), and in November he and Whitgreve were granted their tellerships for life, with the added advantage of being allowed to assign their duties to underlings.26 CPR, 1441-6, pp. 31, 71, 115, 335, 415; E404/61/214. Baron may well have chosen his own son, another William, to be his deputy, for the young man now joined him in royal service. Baron enjoyed a corrody for life at Milton abbey in Dorset, and in July 1446 the King requested the abbot to grant it to William junior in reversion. The latter was described as a messenger of the Receipt and ‘gentleman’ of Reading and London when he took out a royal pardon in 1458,27 CCR, 1441-7, p. 400; C67/42, m. 13. In 1465 Baron sued the abbot for arrears of £30 due for his corrody: CP40/817, rot. 480. whereas the pardons our MP had taken out earlier (in 1437 and in June 1446) referred to him as ‘esquire’ and by his post as teller.28 C67/38, m. 3; 39, m. 41. For some unknown reason, Baron relinquished or was removed from his controllership in London in 1447,29 CPR, 1446-52, p. 53. yet he long remained at the Exchequer. The Act of Resumption of 1450 affected his life-grant of the Whitchurch estate, but almost immediately, on 20 July that year, he secured at the Exchequer a farm of the property for the next 12 years. However, this term was later reduced to eight years, and he was to render 20 marks p.a. On both occasions that the lease was negotiated his son stood surety for him.30 CFR, xviii. 176, 249.

Apart from his loss of Whitchurch, Baron does not appear to have suffered reversals to his career in the political upheavals of the late 1450s. Perhaps because his daughter had married one of the earl of Warwick’s retainers, (Sir) Walter Wrottesley, he was acceptable to the Yorkists following their victory at Northampton. Immediately afterwards, on 1 Aug. 1460, he was reappointed controller of customs in the port of London, an office in which he was confirmed after Edward IV took the throne.31 CPR, 1452-61, p. 590; 1461-7, p. 13. Furthermore, his position at the Exchequer remained unaffected. As before, he was fully prepared to be in attendance at Westminster during vacations, and to assist the treasurer by taking on additional tasks. He was pardoned as ‘of London esquire, former farmer of Whitchurch’ in July 1462.32 E403/823, m. 8; 824, m. 12; C67/45, m. 20; CPR, 1461-7, p. 295. Rewards given him by the new regime included in March 1463 one of £5 for receiving and dispatching to the north of England the sum of £2,000 which had been lent by the mayor and citizens of London for the expenses of the war; and in May that year another of £20 for his labour and the expenses he had sustained while working outside the official terms. These were offset by loans he made to the new King: £40 in April 1462 and a like sum in the summer of 1463.33 E403/827A, mm. 4, 18; 829, mm. 2, 5; 831, 23 July. He stayed on as a teller until July 1469, although after that there is no evidence of further payments of either his usual wages or extraneous rewards. He had worked long and hard for some 45 years.

Naturally, Baron’s closest associates were his colleagues at the Exchequer, men like Thomas Stockdale†, for whom he provided sureties, and Robert Mildenhale, the clerk of the pleas, who acted as his feoffee.34 CFR, xv. 250. He also became involved in the property transactions of various Londoners, both as a trustee and a recipient of their goods and chattels.35 London hr 164/56, 57, 172/54; Cal. P. and M. London, 1413-37, p. 290. These contacts in the City became more numerous and of greater consequence following his marriage to the widowed Joan Shilley, who brought him substantial properties in the capital. Her previous husband, Robert Shilley, had held together with his first wife, Philippa, daughter of John and Philippa Picard, holdings in the parishes of All Hallows Gracechurch, St. Leonard Eastcheap, St. Margaret Pattens and St. Dunstan and St. Olave by the Tower, for which they paid the Picards as much as 40 marks p.a. Surprisingly, Shilley had retained these premises after Philippa’s death, and settled them in jointure on Joan (in 1428). She in turn brought them to her second husband, Baron, and to the daughter she bore him.36 CAD, ii. B1996-7, 2018. The Barons demised one of these properties to a servant of Shilley’s for life in 1438, and in 1445 with the help of the Berkshire lawyer Thomas Drew* they arranged an entail of the rest on their issue, with contingent remainder to Joan’s father, Thomas Knolles. Her brother, Robert Knolles, relinquished his title in 1451.37 London hr 166/49, 179/37; CAD, ii. 2014-16. Transactions regarding these holdings in the 1450s and 1460s indicate that they provided the Barons with a notable income. They leased out a ‘great tenement’ or inn called Le Fawcon super le Hoop with a large garden and cellars in Gracechurch Street for £8 p.a., and a capital tenement nearby once known as Le Ship on the Hoop for ten marks a year.38 London hr 181/13, 184/7, 188/20, 195/26, 27, 196/28; CAD, ii. B2013; E326/11922. Furthermore, although Joan was not the principal heir to the wealthy Knolles family, in 1439 her father had given her and Baron a shop in the parish of St. Nicholas Shambles. (Thomas Lavyngton*, Baron’s fellow MP for Reading, acted as a feoffee for the transfer.)39 CAD, ii. B2221, 2223, 2226-7; London hr 173/27; E326/9995. Knolles may also have given them the property they held in St. Martin’s in the Vintry, although from this they had to pay out a substantial annual rent of £7 3s. 4d. Baron had been drawn into his father-in-law’s affairs, acting as Knolles’s feoffee from early on in his marriage,40 London hr 167/17, 185/17, 191/13. and he was also associated with him in transactions concerning the manor of Chenies in Buckinghamshire, which in 1440 was mortgaged by John Cheyne I*. He also took on the executorship of Knolles’s will, but this led to disputes with his brother-in-law Robert over possession of the manor of North Mimms in Hertfordshire and the disposal of goods worth at least 500 marks. However, these were resolved in 1448.41 CCR, 1435-41, p. 357; Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 109.

Together with Ralph Butler, Lord Sudeley, the former treasurer, Baron was a feoffee of the manor and advowson of Finchley, Middlesex, from 1448 to 1461, apparently acting on behalf of his Exchequer colleague John Poutrell; and he also assisted John Brecknock*, the sometime treasurer of Henry VI’s household, in his landed transactions.42 London and Mdx. Feet of Fines, 197, 240; CPR, 1467-77, pp. 471-2; VCH Mdx. vi. 57. Closer to home, in the 1440s he served as a trustee of the manor of Earley Whiteknights, near Reading, on behalf of Thomas Beke*,43 CPR, 1446-52, p. 24; CCR, 1454-61, p. 209. and, surprisingly in view of their earlier disputes over the Whitchurch estate, he was named among the many feoffees of Edward Langford’s manors in Berkshire.44 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 934.

Baron gave the Carthusians of London ‘quandam notabilem summam pecuniae’ in perpetual alms, and on 3 June 1445 the prior of the Charterhouse granted that in return a daily mass would be said for him and his wife at the altar of St. Anne, and their obits would be kept there when they were dead.45 E326/9022. It was doubtless their common interest in the priory which led to Baron’s connexion with Sir John Popham*, and his activities in the 1450s as Popham’s feoffee of the manor of Rolleston in Leicestershire, which was destined to be donated to the Charterhouse.46 E326/10061, 10068, 11894. Like Popham, whose executor he became, he was to be buried in the priory church, as too was his son William, who predeceased him. Arrangements were made in the 1470s for the priory to have the Barons’ shop in St. Nicholas Shambles, to maintain the lamps kept burning over the tombs of Popham and others, and to provide for the future observance of Baron’s obit.47 CP40/821, rot. 282; Cal. Wills ct. Husting London ed. Sharpe, ii (2), 572-3; CAD, ii. B2219. He and his wife conveyed to the King’s almoner, Brian Roucliffe, baron of the Exchequer, and other Exchequer officials their property in St. Martin’s Vintry in July 1472,48 London hr 202/15. perhaps as part of their testamentary provisions. By this date Baron’s heir was his daughter, Joan, whose husband Sir Walter Wrottesley had risen to prominence with his master the earl of Warwick, but was now languishing in prison.49 For Wrottesley, see Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. n.s. vi (2), 216-43, and, despite the fact that there is no evidence that he ever sat in Parl., HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 974-5. Seven years earlier Baron had arranged that after his and his wife’s deaths Le Fawcon should pass to the Wrottesleys and their daughter Petronilla (one of at least nine children), but this arrangement had to be altered in Baron’s final years. The Barons reclaimed their interest in June 1478, after Wrottesley had died, Joan had married Sir Richard Darell of Littlecote, Wiltshire, and Petronilla had entered a nunnery, and in the following year our MP conveyed the inn to Walter Patsyll, a London mercer.50 London hr 208/9, 12, 209/5. After his gd.da. entered Dartford priory Baron gave the house a book (now Bodl. Douce mss, 322) containing ‘dyvers devowte tretis’, among them ‘Ars Moriendi’, for Petronilla’s use in her lifetime and then to the priory for ever (f. 1). On f. 78 are depicted the arms of Knolles quartering Baron (gules a chevron embowed azure between three garbs or). The book contains several tracts by John Lydgate and the mystic Richard Rolle of Hampole.

Joan Darell apparently inherited most of her father’s property in Berkshire, but not all of his holdings in Reading. In 1472 the mayor and commonalty had granted Baron a plot of land in Castle Street in perpetuity, and on this he built a house and garden, which he donated to the town in the autumn of 1480. Evidently, he wished the income from the property to be used for the customary payment called ‘chepingavell’ paid by the burgesses to the abbot of Reading. He is not recorded alive after 6 Oct. that year, and in October 1481 a pyx containing the deeds to the house was handed over to the mayor. The cofferers’ accounts of the later 1480s refer to payments for a fire and light kept burning on the vigil of All Saints in Baron’s memory.51 Reading deeds, R/AT 1/158, 170-1; cofferers’ accts. nos. 46, 47; Reading Recs. ed. Guilding, i. 79; HMC 11th Rep. VII, 175. Through the profits of his arduous service to the Crown he had brought his family far – from townsmen of Reading to the ranks of the gentry. Indeed, one of his grand-daughters married a member of the lesser nobility, William, Lord Stourton.52 CP, xii (1), 304 (where William Baron is wrongly called John).