HEUSTER, Humphrey

Heuster’s recorded connexion with Chichester dates from the late 1430s. In the course of his career, and probably by purchase, he acquired property outside the west gate of the city, a small estate a few miles to the east at Yapton, Barnham and Walberton (in 1456) and land to the south at West Itchenor and Birdham (in 1461).3 Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 140; CP25(1)/241/91/8; CCR, 1461-8, p. 65. Having successfully recovered at law a messuage and 14 acres at Sidlesham, to these holdings he may also have added in the early 1460s properties in Midhurst and Woolavington, on the road to London to the north of Chichester.4 CP40/778, rot. 501d; CP25(1)/241/92/1. Yet, if these represented all the fruits of the career of a busy and popular lawyer, earning fees for well over 30 years, they do not appear to have amounted to much.

By the time Heuster first settled in Chichester he had completed his legal training, as is clear from his increasing employment in the central courts at Westminster as an attorney for litigants from Sussex.5 e.g. KB27/719, att. rot. 2. He initially made his mark in the city by officiating as bailiff of the liberties of the bishop, a post he occupied for at least six years, during which period he was elected to represent the citizens in the Parliament of 1442. While up at Westminster to attend the Commons that Hilary term he diverted his energies to the business of clients in the court of common pleas, where he also appeared in person to bring his own actions for the recovery of sums of money owed to him, and amounting to over £20.6 CP40/724, rots. 149, 184, 394d. A few months earlier, in November 1441, he had provided bail in the King’s bench for Robert Seman*, one of the constables of the staple of Chichester, who had been accused by his fellow constable of uttering treasonable words about the King; and he did so again in Easter term 1442, guaranteeing Seman’s presence in the court to stand trial when required.7 Suss. N. and Q. xiv. 117-19. Thereafter, Heuster made regular appearances as an attorney in the common pleas, while on his own account suing his debtors, some of whom owed him fees for his services as legal counsel. For instance, in the Trinity term of 1445 he acted for the executors of the former mayor of Chichester, Henry Grenelef*, and also made arrangements for the settlement by final concord of the manor of Kingsham near Chichester on a more prominent lawyer, William Sydney*.8 CP40/738, rots. 13, 164, att. rot. 9; Add. 39376, ff. 36, 37; CP25(1)/241/89/19. In the following year he started proceedings as an executor of John Erpe, one of the canons of Chichester cathedral, whose affairs were to preoccupy him for several years to come.9 CP40/740, rots. 97, 245, 316, att. rot. 1; Add. 39376, ff. 38d, 43d, 65. Others for whom he subsequently provided legal services included the dean and chapter of Chichester, Thomas Esshing* of Arundel, and members of the gentry family of Erneley.10 CP40/753, rots. 43d, 46d, att. rot. 6; 754, rots. 14, 38d, 58d, att. rot. 2d; 756, rots. 13d, 40, 98, 310, 319; 757, rots. 13, 24d, 66, att. rot. 1.

Besides his employment in the central courts on behalf of inhabitants of Chichester, Heuster served the civic community in other ways. In May 1446 he joined the mayor, William Hore I*, and five others in obtaining a royal licence for the foundation of the guild of St. George on a more permanent basis than hitherto, and the endowment of a chantry in the cathedral where prayers might be said for the members of the guild and their families.11 CPR, 1441-6, pp. 461-2. Lacunae in the city’s records make it impossible to compile comprehensive lists of civic officials, but even so Heuster is known to have been bailiff of Chichester for at least six annual terms, and it is a reasonable speculation that he held this office for most of the period from 1447 to 1470. Precisely what his duties entailed is uncertain, but he undoubtedly occupied a position of superiority to the two ‘reeves’ and was second only to the mayor. The regard in which he was held by the citizens is demonstrated by his second election to Parliament in 1450. As before, while the Parliament was in progress he made several appearances in the court of common pleas as an attorney for such litigants from Sussex as William Okehurst*, as well as acting in his own interests.12 CP40/759, rots. 54, 311, att. rot. 5. Although not re-elected to the next Parliament, summoned to assemble at Reading in March 1453, he endorsed the election at Chichester in his capacity as bailiff, and while the first session was in progress that Easter term he busied himself in the law-courts with briefs entrusted to him by such dignitaries as William Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, and Bishop Peacock. In the following year his most important client was (Sir) Roger Lewknor*, then engaged in acrimonious disputes with his stepmother and half-brothers, and he subsequently assisted Lewknor in the settlement of lands in Somerset on his daughter’s marriage to John Wroth.13 C219/16/2; CP40/769, rots. 293, 401; 775, rot. 607; CPR, 1452-61, p. 280. He continued to act for Lewknor well into the 1460s: CP40/828, att. rot. 4.

Having been asked to be an executor of the will of William Hore, the former mayor of Chichester, Heuster was kept busy administering Hore’s estate for several years.14 CP40/779, rot. 43d; 780, rot. 11. During this period, too, he was often called upon to act as a trustee by Sussex landowners.15 CP25(1)/241/91/20, 25. John Fust* (d.1451) had enfeoffed him of property near Chichester, perhaps in the expectation that his knowledge of the law might prove useful to his widow. At least, this is how it turned out, for in the late 1450s Fust’s nephew, the Lincoln’s Inn lawyer John†, contested the widow’s assertion that on his deathbed Fust had instructed his feoffees to transfer possession of certain properties to her and her heirs rather than to their son Nicholas, whose heir John claimed to be. Heuster was sent a writ of subpoena to be in Chancery in January 1458, on pain of a fine of £100, and later testified on oath as to the dying man’s intentions. In doing so he lent his support to the widow and her new husband, William Jacob*, a recent entrant to the mercantile elite of Chichester. Furthermore, he agreed to act as the couple’s attorney in the common pleas.16 Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 161-2; C253/35/257; C1/28/503-7; CP40/779, rot. 168. Heuster attested the Sussex shire election held at Chichester on 28 Aug. 1460, and three weeks later, on 22 Sept., was himself elected to the same Parliament as one of the city’s representatives, in company with Jacob, the outgoing mayor.17 C219/16/6. In the course of the first session the two MPs fell out. The cause of their quarrel is not known, but on 16 Nov. a writ of subpoena was directed to Heuster requiring him to be present in Chancery to answer a plea brought by Jacob and his wife. As had happened on previous occasions, Heuster absented himself from the Commons to bring suits in the common pleas against his debtors, and to serve there as attorney for the prior of Bruton, among others.18 CP40/799, rots. 47d, 74d, 98; 800, rots. 33, 89, 179d; C253/37/16. Not all of those who engaged his services paid their dues. In a later suit Heuster complained that whereas Walter Brygger, a ‘gentleman’ of London, had contracted him as his attorney in a case of trespass brought by the abbot of Tewkesbury, for an annual fee of 6s. 8d. and reasonable costs and expenses, and although he did as required for four years, Brygger failed to pay his fees, amounting to 26s. 8d., and expenses of 40s.19 CP40/804, rot. 357d.

It is perhaps surprising, given his experience as a lawyer and civic official that before Edward IV came to the throne Heuster was never appointed to any ad hoc royal commissions. In the 1460s, however, he was named on two such bodies, required to examine water-courses in his home county. He continued to assist the gentry of the locality in their legal transactions, for instance by acting as a feoffee of the manor of Earnley on behalf of John Erneley*’s son John, and as supervisor of the will the latter made in 1465.20 PCC 10 Godyn (PROB11/5, f.78v); HMC Var. iv. 125. In April 1467, in association with John Goring† and Thomas Best*, he was party to the foundation of another chantry at the altar of St. George in Chichester cathedral, this one established to provide religious services for the soul of his former client William Okehurst.21 CPR, 1467-77, p. 14; VCH Suss. iii. 142. In his later years Heuster periodically acted as an attorney for the earl of Arundel, the prior of Boxgrove and Bishop Arundel of Chichester, and became closely associated with two other local lawyers, John Stanney† and John Wood†, both of whom were in the bishop’s service. Thus, he assisted Stanney in his acquisition from the younger John Fust of a third part of the manor of West Thorney.22 CP40/833, rots. 179d, 248, 331d; 844, rot. 83d; CP25(1)/294/75/41; 92/32. Heuster sued out a royal pardon on 30 Jan. 1472, in which he was described as a ‘gentleman’ of Chichester alias formerly of London, and it was also as ‘gentleman’ that he attested the shire election held on 10 Sept. that year.23 C67/48, m. 15; C219/17/2. He is not recorded thereafter, and had been succeeded by Stanney as bailiff of Chichester by 22 Jan. 1474. He died before 1477.24 Suss. Arch. Collns. lxxxix. 141; Corp. London RO, hr 206/27.

At an unknown date Heuster had enfeoffed Sir Roger Lewknor and others including John Wood and John Goring of a house on the west side of South Street, Chichester, which was conveyed by the surviving feoffees to William Galon on 1 Feb. 1479.25 W. Suss. RO, Diocesan recs. Cap. I/17/60. The links between the families of Heuster and Goring were further cemented by the marriage of Humphrey’s widow, Joan, to Goring’s son, another John (d.1495); and that of his only child, also named Joan, to the latter’s son and namesake. Thus, the property our MP had acquired passed to the Gorings.26 D.G.C. Elwes and C.J. Robinson, Castles W. Suss. 266-7; Sel. Cases Star Chamber, i. (Selden Soc. xvi), 95; London hr 206/27. Heuster’s connexion with the Gorings had been close. In 1460 he had acted for John junior in a suit against the prior of Hardham regarding a landed estate of some 500 acres in Petworth and Sutton: CP40/799, rot. 403.