BEAUFO, Ralph

While without doubt a member of the family long established at Seaton, Ralph’s place in the pedigree cannot be established on the available evidence.2 The ped. in Vis. Rutland (Harl. Soc. iii), 46, is not to be trusted. Nor is more than the very briefest outline of his career possible. It is unlikely that he is to be identified with a namesake, who attested three parliamentary elections at Oakham between April 1421 and July 1433, when William Beaufo* was elected, and who, styled as ‘of Seaton’, witnessed a deed for William in June 1429.3 C219/12/5, 14/1, 4; Northants. RO, Tryon of Bulwick mss, 202/4. The elder Ralph was alive in Nov. 1435: CP40/699, cart. rot. 1. Not improbably our MP was this Ralph’s son and William’s first cousin. The first reference to him probably dates from January 1447 when he appeared with William as an attestor to the Rutland election. There is some indirect evidence that he was a minor local lawyer, educated at Furnival’s Inn and employed by William, Lord Zouche, who lived only a few miles from Seaton. In April 1450 Zouche named him as one of his attorneys to receive seisin of various lands in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire; in 1458 he joined Zouche in entering bonds to two Lincolnshire esquires; and in 1462 Zouche sued him as his receiver.4 C219/15/4; CAD, v. A12001; E13/155, rot. 64d; CP40/804, rot. 56. Other lesser men also employed his services. In 1450 he acted as an attorney to deliver seisin on behalf of Thomas Herryson who lived at Thorpe-by-Water, where the Beaufos held lands; and later he acted with Hugh Boyville* in the execution of the will of Richard Wymark of North Luffenham.5 Tyron of Bulwick mss, 25/13; CP40/775, rot. 387.

None the less, even in the context of a legal training and a connexion with Lord Zouche, it is surprising that, on 25 Oct. 1459, Beaufo should have been elected to Parliament. The explanation may lie in the contentious circumstances in which this Parliament was summoned. Of the leading gentry, only committed Lancastrians, like Beaufo’s fellow Rutland MP, Everard Digby*, would have wanted to sit, and it may be that Beaufo was chosen because better qualified candidates were unwilling. His election was the highpoint of his modest career, but he remained active in the 1460s. In 1462 he was one of a Rutland jury sued for embracery by John Browe*, probably in respect of a verdict given, in Hilary term 1460, in Browe’s dispute with Robert Danvers* over the manor of Pickworth.6 KB27/806, rot. 37d; CP40/794, rot. 309. On 20 Jan. 1463 Beaufo granted his lands in Glaston, near Seaton, to another lawyer, Simon Burton, and Alan Boleyn, although it is not known either how he acquired these lands or how extensive they were. Later, on 13 Feb. 1465, a writ for his outlawry was issued to the sheriff of Middlesex for his failure to answer a London haberdasher for a debt of 35 marks. Here he is described as ‘of London, gentleman’, another indication that he was a lawyer.7 C219/16/5; CAD, iii. B3904; CP40/814, rot. 448. More interesting is the last reference to him. On 20 Oct. 1468 he joined with his wife, Margery, in mortgaging her life interest in property at Thorpe Satchville (Leicestershire) to a local esquire, Geoffrey Sherard, and a London draper, Matthew Clyffe, for the modest sum of £7.8 Leics. RO, Sherard mss, DE1431/224.