CHERTSEY, Edmund

The family of Chertsey had been settled at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire since the late thirteenth century, and the manor of ‘Baas’ there descended to our MP’s father John.6 VCH Herts. iii. 434-5. John also held a house and shops in Westminster, and property in parishes nearby in Middlesex, as well as lands in Essex, while elsewhere in Hertfordshire he possessed the manors of Halfhide and Homeleys and property known as ‘Bromesend’ in Stevenage. For undiscovered reasons, however, in 1408 he conveyed all these (save for the Broxbourne estate) to William Skrene (d.1431) the serjeant-at-law.7 CCR, 1405-9, pp. 387, 392, 470, 472; VCH Herts. iii. 143. The date of John’s death is not known, but his son and heir Edmund, our MP, had come of age by May 1431, and then demised ‘Baas’ and ‘Geddings’ in Broxbourne to feoffees headed by Nicholas Dixon, one of the barons of the Exchequer. This transaction, perhaps initially arranging a mortgage, later resulted in a sale.8 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 126, 128. ‘Baas’ later fell to John Say II*. Edmund also dealt with the rest of his Hertfordshire inheritance, and after challenging the title of Thomas Skrene (one of the serjeant’s sons), to the manors in Stevenage, he reached a negotiated settlement with him in 1435 whereby he kept Halfhide while Skrene retained Homeleys, and if either died without heirs the other and his descendants would inherit.9 Herts. Archs. Lytton mss, DE/K/21910. Nearly 40 years later Chertsey would leave a bequest to the local church of Shephall, in which parish his manor of Halfhide lay.10 PCC 15 Wattys (PROB11/6, f. 110). He leased out Halfhide in 1463: Lytton mss, DE/K/22806.

What prompted Chertsey to move away from Hertfordshire in the early 1430s to live in Kent is unclear, although family financial difficulties may have been the cause. It is possible that he was drawn to Rochester through an undocumented kinship with Thomas Chertsey† (fl.1433), the ostler who had represented the city in Parliament in 1406 and 1410.11 C241/225/81; E199/20/16. It was speculated in The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 541, that Edmund was the gds. of Thomas. This was not the case. But perhaps it is more likely that links with the Kentish family of Martin, headed by the justice of the common pleas John Martin (d.1436) lay behind his re-location. Either Martin or the serjeant-at-law Skrene may have been his mentor when he trained to be a lawyer, and the family property at Holborn provided him with somewhere to live near the inns of court. No details are known about his education, though his will refers to his books of statutes. From early on he was known as a ‘gentleman’. Together with the younger of the judge’s two sons named John, in June 1432 Chertsey received from a London grocer, John Penne, a statute staple in £120. This, Penne had still not paid three years later, so they had to take legal action against him.12 C131/63/20. Chertsey’s first wife, Edith, whose family name is not known, was the coheiress of property in north Kent at Woolwich, Plumstead, Charlton, Chipstead and Chevening, which in November 1437 the couple placed in the hands of feoffees, headed by John Martin. Perhaps Edith was a kinswoman of the Martins.13 CP25(1)/115/311/446. Some of the properties had been held by Henry Trewen of Woolwich, in right of his wife Emma: CCR, 1435-41, pp. 370-1. That Michaelmas term and subsequently Chertsey brought successful actions in the King’s bench for theft of underwood from his land at Woolwich.14 KB27/706, rot. 95d; 707, rots. 3, 84; 708, rot. 5. Further transactions regarding woodland there were completed in 1442: CP25(1)/115/316/559.

Having settled in Kent, Chertsey established himself in Rochester, where in October 1440 he was elected bailiff. The manner of his election and his activities during his official year are obscure, although during his term of office in June 1441 he was appointed to a royal commission to investigate the capture by two English-owned ships of a Breton vessel laden with a valuable cargo of wine and salt. His fellow citizens engaged his services in their property transactions. After the end of his bailiffship he was party to a grant to Thomas Cotyng* of five tenements in St. Clement’s parish, of which he, John Potager* and Thomas Glover had been enfeoffed.15 KB27/718, rex rot. 9d; CPR, 1436-41, p. 572; E326/3149. Glover was currently serving as warden of Rochester bridge, and Chertsey too began a long association with the bridge’s administration. In 1445 he was named as one of Glover’s executors, and duly delivered a bequest of £10 to the then wardens, as well as receiving 20s. from Glover’s estate for his efforts in executing the will. His duties as executor may have proved onerous: seven years later he was still suing the testator’s debtors in the court of common pleas.16 Traffic and Politics, ed. Yates and Gibson, 291; Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Rochester consist. ct. wills 1440-53, DRb/PWr 1, f. 32v; Rochester Bridge Trust, wardens’ accts. 1444-5, F 1/44; CP40/765, rot. 52d. The reason why Chertsey purchased a royal pardon (as ‘gentleman of Rochester’) in June 1446 has not been discovered.17 C67/39, m. 8.

By this time Chertsey’s first wife had died, and in 1443 he and his second wife formally relinquished possession of some of the lands and rents in Woolwich and elsewhere which Edith had brought him.18 CP25(1)/115/317/593. His second wife, Eleanor Culpepper, was herself probably related to the Martins. The couple petitioned the chancellor with regard to the manor of ‘Brisyng’, which had belonged to Eleanor’s grandfather, Peter Culpepper. The latter had enfeoffed Judge Martin and his eldest son, among others, to perform his will, which was that the manor should be settled on him and his wife for life, with remainder to his right heirs. Chertsey and his wife had often asked the surviving feoffees to make estate to Eleanor, but they refused.19 C1/70/155. Among the feoffees was Richard Bamme (d.1452) of Gillingham, the judge’s son-in-law, a man with whom Chertsey became closely involved. In 1445 Eleanor’s uncle Richard Culpepper of East Farleigh relinquished to Chertsey and Bamme the disputed manor of ‘Brisyng’, and lands in Langley, Boughton Monchelsea and Chart, making a final quitclaim in 1447. Furthermore, in March 1449 Culpepper handed over possession to Chertsey of the manor of East Farleigh and lands nearby, and in October entered a bond in £200 to guarantee that he would not challenge Chertsey’s title.20 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 493-4; 1447-54, pp. 157-8. Eleanor’s inheritance also included the manor of Bletchenden, which she and her husband conveyed to feoffees in 1443. Besides Bamme, Chertsey also involved in his transactions another lawyer, Stephen Slegge*, and these two assisted him in the acquisition of property at Headcorn.21 CP25(1)/115/317/585; 318/604.

Although Chertsey’s association with Slegge was a close one, he does not seem to have been implicated to any great extent in the kind of misdemeanors that brought Slegge notoriety in 1450 during his term as sheriff of Kent and member of the circle around James Fiennes*, Lord Saye and Sele. Even so, Chertsey thought it prudent to purchase two pardons on 7 July 1450, just a few days after Fiennes had been put to death by Cade’s rebels. In one of these pardons he was called ‘of Headcorn’, in the other ‘of Rochester’.22 CPR, 1446-52, pp. 355, 364. Yet he did not distance himself from Slegge, who thought well enough of him to name him as overseer of his will ten years later.23 PCC 21 Stokton (PROB11/4, ff. 160-1). Cade’s rebellion and ongoing disturbances in Kent had further indirect consequences for Chertsey. His friendship with Richard Bamme had led to dealings with Bamme’s son John†, and at an unknown date the alliance of their two families was cemented by the marriage of the latter to Chertsey’s daughter, Elizabeth. In 1452 John Bamme was among those who put up sureties in £200 each for Robert Poynings*, now accused of having been Cade’s sword-bearer and treasonous activities, and under the terms of an act passed in the Parliament of 1453-4 his lands were declared forfeit. Chertsey rallied to support him, and in June 1454 he joined with Bamme’s kinsman Robert Martin in securing at the Exchequer custody of the confiscated property.24 CCR, 1447-54, p. 361; PROME, xii. 2271-2; CFR, xix. 85. In connexion with this, later that year Chertsey became involved in a series of transactions concerning properties in London, some of which pertained to Bamme as his inheritance from his father. As well as involving grants by Thomas Walsingham†, the aged vintner, these dealings also linked him with the prominent mercer Hugh Wyche*.25 E40/1683, 1852, 1861, 2625.

In the late 1450s Chertsey continued to be involved in the affairs of Rochester bridge, and in 1456-7 he was appointed as one of the auditors of the bridge wardens’ accounts. The following year he was paid by the wardens for his expenses attending upon their business.26 Rochester Bridge wardens’ accts. 1456-7, F 1/52; 1457-8, F 1/54. It is clear that by this date he had become a man of some standing both in Rochester and beyond, and was sometimes called ‘esquire’. In September 1460 he was returned to Parliament, along with his fellow lawyer Roland Sapurton*, as one of the representatives for Rochester. Although the bailiff of Rochester certified to the sheriff that the election had been made ‘in the name of the citizens’ of Rochester it is unclear whether Chertsey’s election served primarily the interests of the city or the bridge. In any case, given his former service as bailiff, it is unlikely that he proved an unpopular choice as MP. His activities in his only Parliament are obscure, but he may have lobbied on the city’s behalf for a new charter. Yet even if so, this was not to be granted until the following year, and by a different King, Edward IV.27 C219/16/6; P.H. Bartlett, City of Rochester Chs., 31-34.

Chertsey’s status within Kent apparently rose under the new regime. In May 1461 he was appointed to a commission of array for the county, the first such appointment of his career. His professional association with Rochester bridge probably continued to the end of his life. In 1463-4 he was again appointed to audit the wardens’ accounts; by 1468-9 he was a member of the bridge council, the governing body which administered its extensive estates in Kent and London; and in 1466 and again in 1469-70 the wardens made extraordinary payments in return for Chertsey’s advice on specific legal matters.28 Rochester Bridge wardens’ accts. 1463-4, F/59; 1466, F 1/61; 1468-9, F 1/66; 1469-70, F 1/68. No further royal appointments followed, until in June 1471 he was appointed to the commission of the peace in Kent. Although he sat on all commissions until his death, he was never named on the quorum.

Chertsey made his will on 25 Mar. 1474. He asked to be buried in St. Andrew’s cathedral, Rochester, next to his first wife. There, his executors were to erect ‘a convenient stone of marble with a Remembraunce of Imagey thereon’ of himself, his late wife, his current wife and all their children. The prior and monks of Rochester cathedral priory were left money to provide for his soul. Chertsey also left 6s. 8d. for the ‘payntyng’ of the shrine of St. William of Perth within the cathedral, as well as a bequest to the local hospital of St. Bartholomew. The remaining bequests were to his descendants and sons-in-law. To Elizabeth Bamme, his eldest daughter, he left five marks and his ‘Book of the Pater Noster’, and to her son Edmund (his godson and grandson) 20s. and his grammar books; while to his youngest daughter, also called Elizabeth, and to his younger son, Andrew, he left £20 and £10 respectively for their marriages on condition that they would be ‘guyded and governed’ by his widow. To one son-in-law, John Bamme, he left five marks and his ‘litle fair boke of oold statutes’, while his bequests to the other, the goldsmith Richard Massy (husband of his daughter Marion), were less straightforward. He noted that Massy had already received £20 as a marriage portion, and now left him 20 marks more. Finally, he appointed his wife, son William and sons-in-law Bamme and Massy as his executors. Chertsey was dead by the following 8 June when probate was granted.29 PCC 15 Wattys.

Before too long the executors fell out. Massy petitioned the chancellor to complain that although Chertsey had promised him 50 marks on his marriage to Marion of which 20 marks was still outstanding, his co-executors refused to pay him. In their defence they claimed that Chertsey’s bequest had been conditional on Massy entering recognizance to leave Marion double the amount she brought him to the marriage if she outlived him.30 C1/59/137. In another Chancery suit it was revealed that our MP had instructed that his manor of East Farleigh should be sold by the advice of his executors, to fulfill his legacies. This the executors did, bargaining with James Galon to sell it for £80. Having paid £40, Galon arranged to pay the remainder in instalments ending in 1476, but one of the feoffees of the manor refused to hand it over.31 C1/57/274. The widowed Eleanor also had to deal with Chertsey’s Hertfordshire estate. In 1478 she sold the manor of Halfhide along with other lands nearby. The neighbouring manor of Homeleys had descended in the Skrene family as agreed by our MP long before in the 1430s. On Thomas Skrene’s death in 1466 it had fallen to the grandson of his brother William, and when he, Sir John Skrene, died childless, having been killed in a brawl, in late 1474, the manor reverted in accordance with the entail to Edmund Chertsey’s son and heir William.32 CCR, 1476-85, no. 447; VCH Herts. iii. 143; C140/20/25, 50/42.