BEAUFO, William

The Beaufos had been established at Seaton in Rutland and South Creake in Norfolk (the latter of which they had by royal grant), since as early as the reign of Henry I.5 W. Farrer, Honors and Knights’ Fees, iii. 112. Seaton was their principal residence, and four 14th-century heads of the family had represented Rutland in Parliament. As the younger son of a gentry family, which, although prominent in local affairs, was not of the first rank, our MP can have had little to look forward to in the way of inheritance. Moreover, his family’s position was threatened in the reign of Henry IV by the temporary loss of their manor of South Creake. It had come into the hands of a clerk, John Druwe, against whom William’s father had sued a writ of formedon. If a petition presented to the chancellor is to be believed, the Beaufos had supplemented this common-law action with a campaign of intimidation. Druwe complained of the threats he had suffered at the hands of John Beaufo, whom he described as ‘un homme malueis et mesgouerne’. Although the petition resulted, on 24 Apr. 1412, in a royal order for the arrest of our MP’s elder brother, Druwe’s challenge was surmounted and the manor returned to the possession of the Beaufos.6 C1/16/76; CPR, 1408-13, p. 372. The manor appears in the inq. post mortem taken on Sir John’s death: CIPM, xxii. 375. Druwe’s interest was as a feoffee of Sir Thomas Boyville of Stockerston, Leics., with whom the Beaufos appear to have been on good terms: CPR, 1399-1401, p. 478.

Our MP is not to be confused with his namesake and probable uncle, who was appointed sheriff of Rutland in 1407 (but apparently did not act) and was still alive in 1418.7 Add. Ch. 21826. The overlap between the careers of the two men makes it difficult to say which of them served in the retinue of Sir William Porter† during the Norman campaign of 1417 and was named, in December 1419, as one of four lancers chosen from the Rutland gentry to attend a council at Westminster ready to defend the realm.8 E101/51/2; E28/97/25. The balance of probability favours the younger man, who begins to appear frequently in the records thereafter. On 24 Apr. 1421, with his brother, Sir John, and others of the community of Seaton, he quitclaimed to William Sheffield† their right in a common spring at the west end of Seaton. Early in the following year he supported his brother in a violent dispute with the royal parker of Brigstock in Northamptonshire, and, in November 1422, he acted as a charter witness for his neighbour, John Seyton.9 Northants. RO, Tryon of Bulwick mss, 202/2; CPR, 1416-22, p. 444; CCR, 1419-22, pp. 259-60; Add. Ch. 22263. Shortly afterwards his prospects were transformed by his brother’s childless death. On 12 Feb. 1425 the escheator of Norfolk was ordered to deliver to him seisin of the manor of South Creake, the only part of the family property held of the King in chief.10 CIPM, xxii. 374-6; CCR, 1422-9, p. 168. On 27 Mar. 1425 our MP held his first court as lord of South Creake: Raynham Hall Lib., Townshend mss, drawer 20. The Beaufo lands were burdened by the dower interest of his brother’s widow into the 1430s. She died between late 1433 and Mich. term 1435, when her executors sued our MP for debt: CP40/691, rot. 500; 699, rot. 422.

Given the prominent role he played in the administration of his native county for nearly 30 years, Beaufo’s career is both poorly documented and apparently uneventful. Indeed, most of what is known of him concerns his office-holding. Elected to Parliament for the first time on 2 July 1433, he was shortly afterwards appointed to the shrievalty, while the Parliament was still in session. After his year in office he was again, on 22 Sept. 1435 returned as an MP, and, in June 1437, he sued out a general pardon, probably to protect himself against prosecution for any irregularities as sheriff, to which office he was soon reappointed. His career followed much the same pattern in the 1440s and 1450s: three days after the end of his last Parliament he added appointment to the county bench to his list of official credits; and he served a further term as sheriff.11 C67/38, m.22.

Beaufo’s high standing in the county is reflected in his involvement in the affairs of other leading local men. He was particularly closely connected with his distant cousins, the Boyvilles. His father had been one of the executors of Sir John Boyville† (d.1377), and he continued the association. In May 1429 he acted as a mainpernor in Chancery for William Boyville, and, in the following month, the head of that family, John Boyville, was the only layman among those to whom he conveyed his manor of Seaton.12 Early Lincoln Wills ed. Gibbons, 35; CCR, 1422-9, p. 461; Tryon of Bulwick mss, 202/4. Beaufo was himself a popular choice as a feoffee: he is recorded acting in that capacity for John Chiselden*, Thomas Palmer*, John Bellers*, and Thomas Seyton*.13 CPR, 1446-52, p. 179; CP25(1)/126/76/56; HMC Hastings, i. 211-12; Add. Ch. 22274. In May 1441 he was one of the leading local men who witnessed the important deed by which the feoffees of Ralph, Lord Cromwell, acquired the valuable manor of Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and, more humbly, he twice witnessed deeds on behalf of his fellow Rutland MP, John Brauncepath*.14 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 244, 476; Northants. RO, Fitzwilliam mss, 660. With the exception of his early confrontation with the parker of Brigstock, he seems to have enjoyed generally good relations with his neighbours for he rarely appears as either plaintiff of defendant in the central courts, although, in 1449, he was sued by William Alnwick, the bishop of Lincoln, for a debt of £40.15 CP40/753, rots. 174, 298d. Alnwick’s executors were still pursuing him for debt in 1460: CP40/797, rot. 80d. The bpric. of Lincoln held the manor of Lyddington near Seaton.

Beaufo’s administrative career came to an abrupt end with the change of dynasty. It may be that he had supported the Lancastrian cause during the civil war of 1459-61 for not only was he appointed to the commission of array of December 1459 but he also headed the list of attestors to the return of his relative, Ralph Beaufo*, to the notorious Coventry Parliament.16 C219/16/5. His removal from the bench on the accession of Edward IV was perhaps a result of these Lancastrian sympathies, although it might have been due to old age. A combination of the troubled times and his advancing years explain why, on 27 Oct. 1460, he settled the most valuable of his manors, that of South Creake, on his son and heir, William, in tail. He lived out his last years in obscurity, dying shortly before 3 Feb. 1466, when writs of diem clausit extremum were issued to the escheators of Norfolk and Rutland. The family’s long association with South Creake ended during the career of his son and heir, who, shortly before departing on the French expedition of 1475, sold the manor to the lawyer, Roger Townshend†, for £100. The younger William died leaving two daughters as the heirs to his diminished inheritance.17 C1/186/82; C.E. Moreton, Townshends, 119.