LEVENTHORPE, John II

There can be no doubt that the John Leventhorpe returned for the Sussex town of Horsham in 1453 was a member of the affinity of John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, the lord of the borough. But a degree of uncertainty remains as to his identity. A strong case might be made that the MP was the long-lived John Leventhorpe (d.1484), of Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, and Ugley, Essex,2 As in HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 537. a person of distinction who by 1453 could boast more than 30 years’ experience as an estate administrator, most notably as receiver-general of the lands of the duchy of Lancaster in enfeoffment from 1423 to 1443,3 E401/707 m. 16; DL29/1631; DL7/1, no. 49a.; Westminster Abbey mun. 9583. and as sometime treasurer of the duke of Norfolk’s household, at least in the years 1445-50.4 L.E. Moye, ‘Estates and Finances of Mowbray Fam.’ (Duke Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1985), 424; SC6/1007/20. That John, the son and heir of John Leventhorpe I*, was a wealthy landowner whose annual income exceeded £153,5 E179/240/267; C141/7/32. and a figure of considerable weight in the communities of both Essex and Hertfordshire, well respected as a trustee and executor. His unbroken service as a j.p. in Hertfordshire lasted for 34 years from 1437. Yet, the question arises whether a man of his standing would seek election to Parliament for a borough rather than a county seat. Before 1453 he had attested a number of parliamentary elections – one for Essex (1429), three for Hertfordshire, one for Suffolk and one for Sussex (these last two for the consecutive Parliaments of 1449) – and, more significantly, when the elections for the Parliament of 1453 itself were held he put his name to the indenture for Hertfordshire. Indeed, he was important enough to head the lists of attestors in 1442, 1450, 1453 and 1455.6 C219/14/1; 15/1, 2, 6, 7; 16/1-3. If he himself entertained ambitions to sit in the Commons, it seems likely that this would have been easy to arrange long before 1453, especially as one of his brothers, Robert Leventhorpe*, had been returned for their home county as long before as 1425. Then, too, there is no firm evidence to show that he was still in the employment of the duke of Norfolk at this stage in his career, even though he kept in close contact with others of the duke’s affinity: in the late 1450s he married a widow whose two previous husbands had been among the duke’s leading retainers.7 Isabel (d.1481), da. of John Boys of Wellingore, Lincs., wid. of Robert Southwell (d.1438), of Thachint, Herts. and John Ledes I* (d.1457), of Wappingthorn, Suss.: Moye, 381.

On balance, it seems much more likely that the MP for Horsham was the ‘esquire’ who in the 1450s lived at Southwark, and who twice provided sureties at the Exchequer for the keepers of the royal manor of Eltham in the summer before the Parliament met.8 CFR, xviii. 260, 267. This man’s precise relationship to the older John Leventhorpe has not been discovered, but it may well be the case that he owed his promotion in the service of the duke of Norfolk to his kinsman’s good offices. The post of marshal of the Marshalsea was in the gift of the duke as Earl Marshal, and Leventhorpe gained appointment to it in 1450, replacing John Gargrave*, whose serious failings as marshal had led to his dismissal. Furthermore, he would seem to be already well known to the duke, for the grant of office was made to him for life. For a while in 1452 Leventhorpe had custody of an important prisoner, the notorious Sir Thomas Mallory*, earlier accused by Mowbray and Humphrey Stafford, duke of Buckingham, of illegally hunting at their park at Caludon near Coventry. When, on 21 Oct. that year, Mallory was temporarily released from prison, the marshal stood bail on his behalf, only to become his gaoler again a few months later.9 KB27/766, rex rot. 45d; KB29/84, rot. 18d. A curious episode, recorded in testimony given in the ‘Sterred Chambre’ at the palace of Westminster on 1 Feb. 1453, shows Leventhorpe policing the neighbourhood of the Marshalsea. Ralph, Lord Cromwell, answering the accusations of treachery made against him by the ‘false priest’ Robert Colynson, told the Council that Colynson had assaulted a boy in a tavern in Southwark, and that Leventhorpe, the marshal, had come into the tavern and asked Colynson why he was drinking there so early. The priest replied that he was thirsty after saying mass in the parish church of St. Magnus, whereupon Leventhorpe questioned him whether there was not a tavern nearer to the church than that one. Cromwell said Leventhorpe could recount the conversation if required.10 CPR, 1452-61, p. 99.

The Horsham election to the Parliament summoned to meet at Reading on the following 6 Mar. was held on 28 Feb., with Leventhorpe being returned for the borough with William Goureley*, a Derbyshire man employed by the duke of Norfolk as an auditor, as his companion.11 C219/16/2. Another glimpse of the MP is to be found while Parliament was in recess, a few months after the onset of the King’s illness in the summer of 1453. This is in the now famous ‘newsletter’ written by John Stodeley* (a fellow Member of the Commons, sitting for the Mowbray borough of Reigate) and sent to his lord the duke of Norfolk on 19 Jan. 1454. It contained important reports about the King’s mental health, the movements of the duke of Somerset, and the ‘bille of five articles’ put forward by Queen Margaret in an attempt to take regal powers for herself, pre-empting a protectorate. Stodeley reported that all this news had ‘ben espied and gadred’ by reliable informants, notably the chancellor (Cardinal Kemp), and John Leventhorpe and his kinsman Laurence*.12 Paston Letters ed. Gairdner, ii. 299. Clearly, the Leventhorpes were at the centre of affairs at a time of political crisis.

Parliament assembled for its final session, at Westminster on 14 Feb. A few days earlier the marshal had been bound on pain of £1,000 to hold Sir Thomas Mallory securely in his prison and not to allow him bail without the permission of King’s bench. When this was eventually allowed, in Easter term, for Mallory’s good behaviour and appearance in court in the Michaelmas term, Leventhorpe and several other servants of the duke of Norfolk provided sureties.13 KB29/84, rot. 18d; KB27/763, rex rot. 3d; 772, dorse of rot. between rex rots. 29 and 30. Further indication of his continued employment with the duke stems from a year later, in the autumn of 1455, after he and the duke had obtained judgement in King’s bench against John Bendish of Hadleigh, Suffolk, for a debt of 40 marks, but had to seek a writ in the common pleas for Bendish’s arrest in Surrey to recover the money. Leventhorpe took out a pardon, as marshal, on 4 Oct.14 CP40/779, rot. 278; C67/41, m. 29. In the following year he was in trouble. Fifteen of the men from Devon arrested for the infamous murder of Nicholas Radford* were committed to his custody in the Marshalsea in Hilary term 1456, on strict instructions in accordance with the act of the Parliament currently in session that they were not to be granted bail. Yet on 25 June the judges of King’s bench learned that they had absconded. The marshal, on being examined, protested that he had not released them willingly, but was himself committed to the keeper of the palace of Westminster, and his deputy to the custody of the sheriff of Middlesex. At the same time his most important prisoner, Mallory, was also transferred to the sheriff’s keeping, in Newgate.15 KB27/781, rex rot. 2d.

Following this disgrace, Leventhorpe is not recorded until 4 Jan. 1457, when he transferred all his goods and chattels to his wife Katherine and two other members of his family This may well have been done in order to evade the consequences of suits for debt then proceeding against him, notably a plea brought by William Fitzhugh for £20 3s. 4d. But it also looks as if he was seriously ill, and was making preparations for death. Ten days earlier, on Christmas Day, the duke of Norfolk had granted the reversion of his office of marshal of the Marshalsea to William Brandon†, and as on 21 Jan. Brandon formally succeeded to the post, Leventhorpe must have died in the meantime.16 CCR, 1454-61, p. 184; KB27/789, rex rot. 6, 798, rex rot. 45. In the next Trinity term, Fitzhugh pursued Katherine as his widow and executrix to recover the debt in the King’s bench. The sheriff of Bedfordshire, ordered to arrest her, responded that she had insufficient goods in that county by which she might be distrained, and it was not until June 1461 that the creditor gained satisfaction from Leventhorpe’s property in Southwark.17 KB27/785 just. rot. 26. The identity of his heir is not known.