LEWESTON, John

John was almost certainly a relation, perhaps a brother, of his contemporary, Philip Leweston*, the lawyer who represented Dorset boroughs in 1431, 1432 and 1435 (on the last occasion sitting for Dorchester when John represented Lyme Regis). Leland thought that the family had been settled at Lewston in Long Burton (in the north of the county), since the Norman Conquest, and elsewhere it is noted that a John Leweston paid homage for lands in the nearby manor of Sherborne in 1377. Hutchins begins his account of the family in the reign of Henry VII, although it is clear from the careers of John and Philip that it had produced men of note earlier in the century.1 J. Hutchins, Dorset, iv. 128-9, 214. The two MPs belonged to a cadet branch of the family, the main line being represented in the early decades of the fifteenth century by William Leweston, an esquire whose wardship and marriage were bequeathed in 1417 by Robert Hallum, bishop of Salisbury, to his brother Thomas.2 Reg. Hallum (Canterbury and York Soc. lxxii), app. EI. William was probably the ‘Leweston of Dorset’ who married one of the three sisters of Master Gilbert Hallum, canon of Salisbury, the bp.’s heir, and had ‘many children’ by her: Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 236, 252. William appears to have been moderately wealthy. He acquired six messuages and some 250 acres of land at Horton, Brockhampton, Gussage All Saints and Wimborne Minster in 1428, and three years later was recorded holding the manor of Lewston itself.3 Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x), 339; Feudal Aids, ii. 107. Yet his public service was apparently limited to serving as a juror at inquisitions post mortem in Dorchester and Sherborne in the 1430s and 1440s.4 C139/85; 102/26; 107/26. William’s precise relationship to John and Philip is as unclear as their relationship to each other, but since in 1453 he was named in the entail of Philip’s property in Surrey as entitled to the final remainder, they must have been quite closely related, especially as the property was to revert to William’s right heirs in the event of the failure of other lines.5 CP25(1)/232/74/5.

In 1428 John Leweston, our MP, was recorded holding half a knight’s fee in Lewston, which had belonged to one of his ancestors in the early fourteenth century.6 Feudal Aids, ii. 75. He was at Westminster in the Hilary term of 1431, then bringing a suit of debt in the court of common pleas.7 CP40/680, rot. 168. This was just a few months before his kinsman Philip, then sitting in the Commons for Melcombe Regis, assumed office as a filacer in that court. There is no indication that like Philip he himself was trained in the law, and his occupation is unknown. By that spring John was in possession of a burgage on the north side of Durnelane in Dorchester,8 Dorchester Recs. ed. Mayo, 281. so when it came to the elections for the Parliament of 1433 he was able to fulfil the residential qualifications for representing the borough. However, he is not known to have ever held local office, or to have been a feoffee of property for any of the burgesses. Whether he was similarly qualified to sit for Lyme Regis, which he did two years later, is not revealed in the few surviving local records.

The MP may have been the John Leweston associated with Philip in a plaint of intrusion brought by (Sir) William Estfield* regarding property in the London parish of All Hallows at the Hay in 1439, and, called ‘son of Roger Leweston’, in the acquisition of a lease of land in Wimbledon, Surrey, four years later.9 Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 18; CCR, 1441-7, p. 388. Yet two, perhaps different, John Lewestons were named in the entail of Philip’s holdings made in 1453. In the event of Philip dying without issue by his wife Margaret, these holdings were to pass to a clerk named Thomas Swift for his lifetime, with remainder in tail to John Leweston ‘of Stratton’ (perhaps the place situated near Dorchester), while John Leweston ‘of Keyhaven’ (in Hampshire) and his male issue were accorded a further remainder.10 CP25(1)/232/74/5.