BERNARD, Nicholas

Nothing is known about Bernard’s background and family,3 He is not mentioned in the will of John Bernard (d.1415) of West Lavington, Wilts., who was escheator of Hants and Wilts. 1399-1400 and receiver of duchy of Lancaster estates there and in other southern counties 1401-d.: R. Somerville, Duchy, i. 622, 625; PCC 32 Marche (PROB11/2B, f. 250). but he lived at Upton near Basingstoke,4 Hants RO, Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C/639. where he served as a juror at the inquisition post mortem of Sir William Sturmy* in 1427, and by the time he was elected to Parliament he ranked among the lesser gentry of Hampshire, with landed holdings worth an estimated £15 a year. He was listed with other local landowners as liable to take the generally prescribed oath against maintenance in 1434.5 CIPM, xxii. 717; E179/173/92; CPR, 1429-36, p. 397. To judge by his regular employment as a feoffee and his later role as a coroner, he was probably trained in the law, and his closest contacts were with lawyers involved in the administration of the estates of the bishopric of Winchester and of Winchester College. For instance, before he entered the Commons he was enfeoffed by Richard Wallop† senior, then steward of the college estates, of land in Fernhill, previously belonging to John Fromond, which passed to the college in the 1430s; and by grant of the son and heir of Thomas Denton, a London mercer, in 1433 he held in trust property in Cowfold and Rotherwick which later came into the possession of Wallop’s successor as steward, Thomas Haydock*. A year later, along with Haydock and Richard Holt*, he was granted by John Stafford, bishop of Bath and Wells, an estate in Kings Somborne which was to be conveyed in 1452, after his death, to John Audley*, the son and heir apparent of James, Lord Audley.6 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 259, 301; 1454-61, p. 102; Winchester Coll. muns. 9602; Magdalen Coll. Oxf., Somborne Regis deeds, A3.

Before his own return to Parliament, Bernard had attested five of the shire elections held at Winchester between 1419 and 1432, and had served a term as escheator of Hampshire and Wiltshire. At an unknown date he had been made a verderer of the forest of Woolmer and Alice Holt, but on his promotion to the lieutenancy of the forest he became ‘too much occupied in divers business concerning that office’ so that he neglected his tasks as verderer; he was replaced in the spring of 1430.7 C219/12/3, 13/2, 4, 14/2, 3; CCR, 1429-35, p. 3. It is not known precisely when he became Cardinal Beaufort’s bailiff in the estates of his bishopric situated mainly to the south of Winchester, but he had certainly done so by the autumn of 1432, and thereafter remained in Beaufort’s service until his death. He may well have come to Beaufort’s notice through the help of his neighbour Edward Cowdray* of Herriard, a member of the cardinal’s intimate circle,8 With whom he had been associated in the 1420s: Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C/443, 451. or else by the recommendation of Beaufort’s’s cousin, Thomas Chaucer*, who as keeper of the forest of Woolmer and Alice Holt had been instrumental in securing his appointments there. Even so, his election to Parliament in 1435 can have owed nothing directly to Chaucer (who had died the previous year). Beaufort probably welcomed Bernard’s support in the Commons, although nothing of much significance is recorded of his movements in this period. While the Parliament was in session, on 5 Nov. 1435, his name was put on the list of witnesses to a deed of Elizabeth, widow of John Wintershall*, dated at Wintershall in Surrey; her stepson Thomas Wintershall* was then sitting with him in the Lower House. Bernard attested the Hampshire elections again in 1437 and 1442 (then also offering mainprise for William Ringbourne*, one of the knights-elect), but was never to be re-elected himself. He acted in December 1438 for Henry Somer*, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, as an attorney for the delivery of seisin of property at East Worldham, appeared as a witness to a lease made by Cardinal Beaufort in March 1439, and in May 1440 put his seal to a conveyance to (Sir) John Seymour I* of lands in Elvetham.9 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 38, 370; Winchester Coll. muns. 19785; C219/15/1, 2; Reg. Common Seal (Hants Rec. Ser. ii), no. 258.

Bernard probably died on 6 Mar. 1442, a few days before Richard Newport* succeeded him as bailiff of Bishops Waltham and elsewhere.10 Bp. of Winchester’s pipe rolls, 11M59/B1/182.