BURGH, John IV

It is difficult to disentangle details about the career of this John Burgh from those of his namesakes, especially as he was by no means the only John Burgh in Henry VI’s service.2 He has been distinguished from John Burgh ‘esquire’ who on 15 Dec. 1437 was granted for life the office of water-bailiff of Calais, and from June 1442 to Oct. 1451 served as serjeant of the King’s tents and pavilions, for that John was dead by Nov. 1457: CPR, 1436-41, p. 127; 1441-6, p. 98; 1446-52, p. 497; 1452-61, p. 395. He may have been the John Borgh who owed suit of court in the honour of Wallingford in the early 1430s, and at courts held at Wallingford itself in the spring of 1431 sued a local mill-ward for debt.3 SC2/212/4, 7, rot. 1. However, Borgh’s name did not appear on the next surviving court roll, that of 1439.4 SC2/212/12. Burgh the future MP probably entered royal service before the late 1440s, by which period he was already a yeoman of the Crown.5 He was therefore of more lowly status than two other John Burghs, senior and junior, who were listed among the esquires of the Household respectively from 1441 to 1443 and from 1441 to 1450 or later: E101/409/9, 11, 16, 410/1, 3. The elder of these two had been a member of the Household as early as Dec. 1422: E404/48/311. In November 1447 and again a year later he went to the Exchequer as representative for all the grooms and pages of the Chamber to collect assignments for their rewards; and as a yeoman on 11 Jan. 1449 he received a personal grant for life of 6d. a day from the issues of the manor of Marston Meysey, Wiltshire. Burgh secured exemption from the Acts of Resumption of 1450 and 1455 in respect to these wages.6 E403/769, m. 4; 773, m. 6; CPR, 1446-52, p. 217; PROME, xii. 128, 417.

Meanwhile, he had been returned to the Parliament of 1453 as a representative for Wallingford, most likely because of his royal office. The Commons on this occasion contained an abnormally high number of Household men. On 10 Apr., shortly after the end of the first session, which was held not far away at Reading, he was granted jointly with another minor royal servant, Robert Bentham, the office of porter of Wallingford castle, which Bentham had previously held alone as reward for his good service to the King’s parents. In June 1454, after the dissolution of the Parliament, an exemplification of Bentham’s previous letters patent was issued when Burgh swore on oath that the originals had been lost.7 CPR, 1452-61, pp. 107, 159. When, on 13 Nov. 1454, ordinances for the regulation of the Household were drawn up by the Council to reduce the number of dependants while the King was ill, Burgh was one of 23 yeomen of the Crown retained at court, and he duly continued to wear the royal livery for the next six years.8 PPC, vi. 224; E361/6, rots. 50, 51d. In 1456 he was granted during pleasure the office of gauger in the port of Bristol, a grant which was confirmed a year later. Finally, in gratitude for Burgh’s support against the Yorkist rebels, Henry VI awarded him on 13 Jan. 1460 the post of warrener of Brailes, forfeited in the recent Parliament at Coventry by Richard, earl of Warwick.9 CPR, 1452-61, pp. 275, 329, 354, 579. His tenure proved to be short-lived, for the earl’s army was victorious at Northampton in July following, and Burgh then also lost his post at Bristol. He ceased to be a member of the Household when Henry VI came under the control of the Yorkists. There is no record of a fresh appointment to the portership of Wallingford at that time, but it seems likely that Burgh was removed from this office before June 1461, when the new King, Edward IV, granted it to someone else. What became of him after Henry VI’s deposition is unknown.10 There is no evidence to identify him with the Lincolnshire esquire of this name who entered Edw. IV’s service before Feb. 1462, and benefited from the forfeiture of the Tailboys estates: CPR, 1461-7, pp. 75, 270, 470, 544.