DELVE, William

This MP’s family lived at Ringmer, about two miles away from the borough he represented in Parliament, and his father, John, was frequently appointed as a collector of parliamentary subsidies in Sussex in the early years of the fifteenth century. William himself is first mentioned in the records in 1406 when Michael Petter conveyed two acres of land in Ringmer to him and his father; and he must have come of age well before 1427, when he witnessed a deed in the locality.2 Cat. Glynde Place Archs. ed. Dell, 126, 149. He twice served as a tax collector in the 1430s, and some indication of his standing in the county is provided by his inclusion on the list drawn up by the shire knights of 1433-4 of those who ought to take the oath not to maintain malefactors.3 CPR, 1429-36, p. 372. Delve was party to an agreement regarding ownership of the manor of Glynde, some three miles from Lewes, which was made in October 1441 between Nicholas Morley* and Robert Lee, the husbands of two of the Waleys coheiresses. A clause in the agreement stipulated that Lee would render £14 p.a. to Morley, with Delve acting as Morley’s receiver.4 Cat. Glynde Place Archs. 12. This may suggest that his regular occupation was in estate management.

On occasion Delve was described as ‘of Southover’ which indicates that by the time of his election to Parliament for Lewes in the autumn of 1449 he had acquired property on the outskirts of the borough. While the third and last parliamentary session was in progress at Leicester from April to June 1450 serious unrest in Sussex and Kent erupted into a full-scale rebellion under the leadership of Jack Cade. Our MP was among the many men of his locality who took out royal pardons at the beginning of July, although it should not be assumed from this that he himself had been out with the rebels. Rather, he may have obtained the pardon to insure freedom from prosecution for activities which in a time of uncertainty might be misconstrued.5 CPR, 1446-52, p. 372.

It was probably this William Delve, called ‘the elder’, who in May 1462 conveyed to John Gelot’s widow lands in Ringmer of which he had been enfeoffed by her late husband.6 CAD, iv. A9514. But it is more likely to have been a younger namesake who filed a petition in Chancery in 1476 with regard to the affairs of the son and namesake of John Godeman*, another former MP for Lewes. To help Godeman junior pay off debts of 40 marks and to secure his release from prison, the petitioner had joined Godeman senior in standing surety for a loan from John Hert†, but had been subsequently sued by Hert’s widow for the residue of the debt, 18 marks, and for £2 in costs. Young Godeman refused to indemnify him, and denied ever promising to do so.7 C1/57/187-9. Some of our MP’s land in Ringmer was later sold to John Thatcher (d.1499).8 PCC 16 Blamyr (PROB11/13, ff. 139v-140).