HOOD, Walter

Walter Hood was a member of the leading Leominster family, at least if prominence can be measured in terms of frequency of election to Parliament, but his precise place in the family pedigree can only be a matter of speculation. He makes some of his earliest appearances in the records in association with his kinsman, Thomas Hood*: in 1431 the two men were joint-defendants in an action of debt sued by a Leominster chaplain, and a year later Thomas sued our MP for a debt of 11 marks. In the first of these actions Walter was styled ‘mercer’ and in the second as ‘chapman’.1 CP40/681, rot. 294d; 686, rot. 365d. In later litigation he was described as either mercer or yeoman, save for one occasion late in his career when he was styled ‘gentleman’.2 CP40/688, rot. 433; 696, rot. 287d; 708, rot. 152d; CPR, 1452-61, p. 152. I have excluded here a doubtful reference of 1440, when, in a Herefs. plea, the dean and chapter of Hereford cathedral secured a writ of outlawry against Walter Hood, a smith of Croydon, Surr., for the unjust detention of 60 quarters of grain: CP40/719, rot. 250. This is either a namesake, or our MP had more extensive commercial interests than are implied in the other references to him. If, however, this marks the social advance of a successful career, that career has left few traces on the records, and he was not among the Leominster men assessed to the subsidy of 1451.3 E179/117/64.

Hood was probably a young man when elected for Leominster in 1431 and 1433. On the second occasion his return was attested by Thomas Hood.4 C219/14/2, 4. Later he was among several men, the principal of whom was a local esquire, Richard Wigmore of Lucton, who on 25 Sept. 1437 allegedly dissessed Thomas Walwyn† of Stoke Edith, Richard Walwyn of Much Marcle and others of a large estate in Croft, Kingsland, Orleton and other vills to the north-west of Leominster, and, a week later, broke into the house of Isabel Croft at Croft, taking household goods to the value of £40. These incidents were probably manifestations of a dispute within the Croft family, as one of those accused was the widow of John Croft of Lucton, but there is nothing to show why our MP should have been involved. Cases arising from these alleged offences were pending by adjournment in King’s bench early in 1440, and there is no evidence that our MP suffered from his supposed involvement.5 KB27/714, rot. 112. Sued alongside our MP was John Hood, who is described as ‘of Lucton, yeoman’ and thus was probably not the mercer who sat for Leominster in the 1420s. He was not so fortunate in another action. A jury, sitting before the justices of assize at Hereford on 31 July 1438, condemned him in costs and damages of 40s. for his failure to discharge a bond in £16 that he had entered into to John Reve of Orleton in 1431.6 CP40/708, rot. 111.

No more is known of him until 24 Oct. 1450, when he attested the Leominster election in company with William* and John Hood*. Despite an apparent lapse of 20 years since his previous election (although he may have been returned to one or both of the assemblies of 1439 and 1445, for which returns are lost), he was elected at the next hustings of 3 Mar. 1453, when his kinsmen, Thomas, John and William Hood, were among the attestors. There is one small indication of his activities during this Parliament: on 8 Apr. 1454, during its last session, he joined the Hereford MP, John Welford*, in offering surety for a lease by the Crown to two of the county’s gentry, Thomas Parker and John Dumbulton.7 C219/16/1, 2; CPR, 1452-61, p. 152. A few years later he was again associated with Welford and William Hood. In Hilary term 1459 the three men were among those appealed by Alice, widow of David Beelte, as accessories in the death of her husband.8 KB27/791, rot. 19. This, however, is the last reference to him to have been traced.