BOLTER, John

The Bolters were a minor gentry family who gave their name to the family seat of Bolterscombe in south-western Devon. In the early years of the fifteenth century, the family lands there and elsewhere in the parish of Ugborough, at nearby Barleycombe in South Brent and Lupridge in North Huish, and further afield at Brentor and Bradford, were held by Roger Bolter who in 1418 became precentor of Exeter cathedral, and was closely connected with the bishop of Exeter, Edmund Lacy.2 C1/68/255; Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, ix. 5, 7, 11, 14, 46. By comparison, John Bolter (who may have been Roger’s younger brother) was a more obscure figure. Nothing is known for certain of his early life or education, but it is likely that he received some training in the law, and that it was his profession that brought him to the prosperous city of Exeter in the precentor’s wake. He was admitted to the freedom of the city in November 1418, not long after Roger’s installation at the cathedral, on payment of the customary fine of £1.3 Exeter Freemen ed. Rowe and Jackson, 43.

Unlike other freemen, Bolter never embarked on a career of civic office holding, but he did periodically attend the elections of the city officers at the guildhall,4 Devon RO, Exeter city recs., mayor’s ct. rolls 7-8 Hen. V, rot. 1d; 2-3 Hen. VI, rot. 1d. and frequently served on local juries taking inquisitions post mortem, including those of men as important as Thomas, earl of Salisbury, Sir Thomas Carew, (Sir) Richard Hankford* and Sir John Dynham of Nutwell.5 C139/40/56, 41/57, 48/30, 50/46, 51/49, 54, 61/45. He was thus a familiar figure among the citizens when he was returned to the Parliament of 1425 as their representative. Nevertheless, the men of Exeter were highly conscious of social hierarchy, and thus Bolter received just £4 6s. in wages for the more than 19 weeks the Parliament lasted, a sum that compared unfavourably with the £6 13s. 4d. allocated to his more prominent colleague, the former city receiver John Cutler alias Carwithan*, even if the citizens did add a reward of 20s. as a sweetener.6 Devon RO, Exeter receiver’s acct. 3-4 Hen. VI, m. 3. Nor were Bolter’s relations with his neighbours invariably harmonious: in May 1432 he was indicted in the mayor’s court for having assaulted Elizabeth, wife of John Cleyet, with a pitchfork.7 Exeter mayor’s ct. roll 10-11 Hen. VI, rot. 32d.

Not long after his spell in the Commons, Bolter was chosen one of the county coroners for Devon. He may, indeed, have been appointed against his will, for between 1429 and 1436 writs for his dismissal were repeatedly issued – possibly at his own instigation – claiming variously that he was unfit to hold office, sick or aged, and there is no concrete evidence of his actively exercising the coronership, unless his documented presence at three successive shire elections at Exeter castle between 1427 and 1430 arose from his official duties.8 CCR, 1422-9, p. 431; 1429-35, p. 156. In Feb. 1429 three other men held office: C244/1/49, 2/77. There may indeed have been some truth in the last of these writs, issued in August 1436, stating that Bolter was too sick and aged to exercise his office, for he seems to have died not long after.9 CCR, 1435-41, p. 29.

On chronological grounds, it must have been a younger man of the same name, possibly Bolter’s son, who served in the household of the archdeacon of Cornwall, Master William Fylham, in the 1430s, a position which he undoubtedly owed to his uncle, the precentor.10 C47/7/6(1); Fasti, ix. 9, 16, 48. The younger John Bolter was a particular favourite of Roger, who made arrangements to settle the family estates on him, thereby disinheriting his direct heirs, the descendants of his brother Henry. At least in part, this decision was motivated by the conduct of these relatives: Henry himself had been a man of dubious character, who in 1430 had been indicted of the murder of one John Browning of Will.11 KB27/675, rex rot. 8. Henry’s eldest son, another John, was parson of Exminster, but the precentor ruled him out as an heir ‘because he was not well governed’, a valid assessment, for around the time of Roger’s death the parson was outlawed for his failure to respond to a suit for debt brought by an Oxfordshire man. This left the two daughters of the parson’s brother Thomas, but Roger was anxious that the family lands should not be sold, and as the two women lived in Kent, he chose to disinherit them as well. The precentor realized that his rightful heirs would not simply accept their disinheritance, so in his lifetime he left instructions with his feoffees and executors that his nephew John should, if necessary, defend his claim at law. Among the feoffees was the young man’s master, Fylham, now chancellor of Exeter cathedral, and the delay in the transfer of the estates which now ensued may to some degree have been of his making. Aware of the young man’s expectations, Fylham sought to turn them to his own advantage. He turned to two acquaintances of some standing, John Prideaux of Addeston and John Gambon of Torre, asking them to persuade John to marry a cousin of his, the daughter of one Thomas Button. So keen was Fylham to secure the Bolter inheritance for his kinswoman that he even instructed Prideaux and Gambon to offer Bolter the sum of £20 if he would agree to the marriage. John, however, declined, and Fylham angrily dismissed him from his service. Although the chancellor died in early 1439 and Roger Bolter’s surviving feoffees readily agreed to let John receive the profits of his lands, they were more reluctant to transfer possession of them. Bolter was forced to petition the King and the chancellor for redress and secured the appointment of a commission of inquiry headed by the abbot of Buckfast and including the mayor of Exeter and the lawyers Thomas Gille I* and Richard Strode*. The commissioners examined a number of witnesses, several of them members of the leading gentry of southern Devon, who all agreed that it had been the precentor’s intention to leave his landholdings to his nephew John.12 CPR, 1436-41, p. 274; C47/7/6(1); C1/68/255. Litigation with the feoffees and the daughters of Thomas Bolter nevertheless continued in various courts into the 1470s.13 CP40/720, rot. 161d; 724, rot. 127; 730, rot. 37; C1/58/227.

John followed in his putative father’s footsteps in serving on a succession of local juries,14 C139/153/22, 167/1; C140/7/5, 8/17, 8/18, 25/41, 26/43, 30/58, 39/64, 44/22, 59/77, 85/48; JUST1/199/13, rot. 2. before for his part being chosen a county coroner in August 1460, an office which he continued to hold into the 1470s.15 C242/11/30, 13/6; KB27/830, rex rot. 8d; 831, rex rot. 3; KB9/312/70, 71, 315/46, 47. The exact date of his death is uncertain, but he probably died not long before on 8 May 1488 a writ of diem clausit extremum in his name was issued to the escheator of Devon.16 CFR, xxii. 154.