EDGECOMBE, William

The Edgecombes were an ancient south-western family that took its name from a manor in the Devon parish of Milton Abbot. In the late fourteenth century an earlier William Edgecombe, a probable ancestor of the MP, acquired the Cornish manor of Cotehele, which became the family seat, by his marriage to its heiress.4 Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME37, 39. As this William died in or before 1380, it is improbable that the Plymouth MP, who survived into the later 1450s, was his son, as later pedigrees of the Edgecombes suggest.5 Watkin, ii. 728-9; Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 141; idem, Vis. Devon, 324.

Since it seems possible that there were, in fact, three Williams in succession, it is impossible to be certain whether it was the MP who in 1405 received a settlement of lands in Lovehille in Calstock at an annual rent of 6s. 8d. from William Lovehill.6 Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME42. On the other hand, his later career suggests that he was the man who in 1419 was appointed joint keeper of the royal silver mines in Devon for a term of four years from Easter 1419. If Edgecombe had hoped to profit personally from his keepership, he was to be disappointed, for at least for the last six months of Edgecombe’s term the mines were flooded and could not be worked.7 E101/265/5. Edgecombe seems to have decided to cut his losses; in 1423 his appointment was not renewed, whereas his fellow keeper, Robert Hethe, continued in office.8 CFR, xv. 40. By this time Edgecombe may have been regularly resident at Plymouth, for at some point before the summer of 1425 his wife, Joan, had been violently assaulted there by two local merchants.9 CP40/658, rot. 434. It is possible that she died soon after as a result of her maltreatment. Before 1436 William had married again, taking as his second wife Christine, one of the daughters and ultimate coheiresses of William Jelys of Bere Ferrers, by whom he had at least one child.10 CP40/703, rot. 427.

There is no suggestion that Edgecombe either engaged in trade or practiced the law, and it seems that his income derived principally from his property. As he was a younger son, this must have consisted chiefly of the holdings he had acquired by marriage.11 His positioning as last of the named witnesses to a deed of feoffment made in Apr. 1420 may suggest that he was a yr. bro. of Peter Edgecombe, who was named second: Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Bewes, Dickinson and Scott mss, 1278/3. He nevertheless appears to have been a respected member of Plymouth society, assisting his neighbours in their property conveyances or attesting the same, and he was occasionally called upon by the King’s searcher of ships to undertake tasks such as the valuation of confiscated goods, or to be empanelled on local juries.12 Edgcombe mss, ME772/1-2; Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Woollcombe mss, 710/668; CCR, 1429-35, pp. 111, 114; E122/183/19, m. 1; C139/93/51. In the 1430s, he ranked among the leading townsmen who successfully negotiated for the incorporation of the townships on the Plymouth estuary as the new borough of Plymouth.13 CP40/727, rots. 334-334d. He was thus a plausible and well qualified candidate to represent the still new constituency in the Parliament of 1447, held in the provincial backwater of Bury St. Edmunds, a venue rather less palatable than Westminster to the local merchants and lawyers.

It is possible, albeit not certain, that at the time of his election Edgecombe was already embroiled in an acrimonious quarrel with the wealthy Roger Champernowne*, who accused him of forging property deeds in an attempt to deprive him of some of his estates at Bere Ferrers. Litigation over the issue continued in the court of common pleas until at least the autumn of 1457, but it is unknown whether the matter was ever settled.14 CP40/752, rot. 69; 754, rot. 188; 758, rot. 250d; 760, rot. 208; 761, rot. 200; 779, rot. 181d; 780, rot. 154d; 781, rot. 146; 786, rot. 44; 787, rot. 245.