FORTESCUE, Richard

Richard was a nephew of two of the leading lawyers of fifteenth-century England, the respective chief justices of England and Ireland, (Sir) John*, and Henry Fortescue†.5 The MP must be distinguished from his first cousin and namesake, Richard Fortescue of Fallapit, the son of Henry Fortescue: CPR, 1467-77, p. 60; CCR, 1454-61, p. 448; CP40/800, rot. 94d. His father, another Richard, who did not achieve the same prominence as his brothers, acquired landholdings extending over more than 1,000 acres at Ermington and Hollacombe in Devon through his marriage to one of the coheiresses of the Holcombe family.6 C146/3015; C140/76/60. The elder Richard was, however, clearly able to trade on his family connexions, for in the second half of Henry V’s reign even men as well connected as Thomas Chaucer* and John Golafre* were reduced to seeking the chancellor’s assistance in bringing him to law, on the grounds that both his father and his brother-in-law, John Bosom†, were j.p.s in Devon.7 C1/69/24.

In line with family tradition, the younger Richard was sent to Lincoln’s Inn to train in the law. Unlike his uncles, however, he appears not to have sought a career in the judiciary, or even as a professional lawyer. Rather, he established himself as a local landowner and took up residence in a house adjacent to the royal gaol at Ermington.8 Stonor Letters, i. 74-77. The Fortescues possessed longstanding connexions with the Courtenay earls of Devon, two of whom Richard’s grandfather had served as steward in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Courtenay influence probably played its part in securing Richard’s election to Parliament (even in his father’s lifetime) for the comital borough of Plympton Erle, which his uncle John, the later chief justice, had represented in 1429.9 M. Cherry, ‘Crown and Political Community, Devon’ (Univ. of Wales, Swansea, Ph.D. thesis, 1981), 26. The Fortescues could certainly claim to be qualified for election in that they nominally fulfilled the requirement for residency by holding property in the town as part of Agnes Fortescue’s inheritance.10 CP40/724, rot. 447.

There is no indication that Fortescue distinguished himself in Parliament, although his failure subsequently to secure office under the Crown may be partly explained by his relative youth and inexperience. Before long, political events also conspired to put him at a disadvantage, as his family’s traditional patron, Thomas Courtenay, the earl of Devon, disgraced himself by joining in the duke of York’s abortive armed demonstration at Dartford in 1452. Three years later, the earl’s participation in the battle of St. Albans on 22 May 1455 claimed the life of Fortescue’s father.11 Stonor Letters, i. 36.

The legacy which the elder Richard Fortescue left to his son consisted, above all, of a convoluted network of lawsuits over his wife’s inheritance. Among the earliest was one that set Richard against his maternal aunt Isabel, her husband William Ritte and their son John*. Under the terms of an entail of 1419 Fortescue’s parents had laid claim to the greater part of the Holcombe lands, and a legal battle had ensued, which in January 1438 had been put to the arbitration of Henry Fortescue. As this attempt at a settlement had failed, the parties submitted to the judgement of Fortescue’s second brother, the later chief justice John. Under his award the disputed lands were to be divided between the parties, but litigation soon flared up again, and was continued after the elder Richard’s death by his widow and son.12 Ibid. 36-37; C1/17/11-15; 26/565; 73/65; 75/77; C253/29/10, 16, 17; 35/339, 355; CP40/765, rot. 124d; 766, rot. 55d; 768, rot. 127; 771, rot. 516; 789, rot. 335d; JUST1/199/13.

Closely connected with the quarrel with the Rittes was a dispute over the tenancy of the manor of Ermington with the wealthy Stonors of Stonor, which dated back to the younger years of Fortescue’s father.13 C146/3015; C1/69/24; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 484. In the spring of 1462 John Frende, the bailiff at Ermington of Thomas Stonor II*, complained to his master that he was being threatened by Fortescue’s servants to such a degree ‘that I dere not go to cherche ne to chepyng’, and reported that under the pressure of such threats various of Stonor’s tenants at Modbury had already come to terms with Fortescue. He begged Stonor to come to the south-west in person. This Stonor did in early May, only to fall victim himself to an assault by his opponent, who waylaid him at Ermington with an armed gathering of men.14 Stonor Letters, i. 55-57, 78-80. In the summer of 1463 the quarrel came to the arbitration of three prominent lawyers, including William Huddesfield†, and it was determined that the parties should release to each other and their supporters all actions pending.15 Ibid. 63-66; C47/37/22, no. 32. Yet, Fortescue failed to abide by the agreement, and soon resumed his harassment of Stonor’s friends and retainers. He bullied them at law and succeeded in having fines imposed on them, and – more seriously – beat and wounded John Ritte in the course of a theft of timber from Yarninknowle wood (in Holbeton).16 Stonor Letters, i. 73-74. A particular target was Stonor’s hapless bailiff, John Frende. On 12 Dec. 1465 Fortescue rode to Frende’s house at Ermington with a following of 80 armed men, and on the pretext of a warrant from the sheriff of Devon arrested him, and took him to his house. There, he placed Frende in the stocks and held him for four days, until he agreed to pay a ransom of five marks, as he complained to the chancellor and the justices of common pleas.17 Ibid. 74-77; C1/31/34-6; C253/40/63; CP40/818, rot. 251. Another servant of Stonor’s, John Yeme, found Fortescue’s men lying in wait for him at Ermington in an attempt to murder him, having aroused his anger by successfully opposing him in court at Plympton. He had been less successful in the duchy of Cornwall court at Trematon, where Fortescue’s friend William Menwenick* ‘a felow of Corte of his’, was steward. Before long, however, Fortescue’s luck ran out. By the early summer of 1466 Stonor’s influence with the chancellor, George Neville, archbishop of York, saw the dispute brought to trial in the King’s bench. In the event, the matter was decided before the assize justices (Sir) Walter Moyle* and Thomas Young II* at Exeter and Fortescue was condemned to pay to his opponent damages of £32, of which Stonor agreed to remit £12. To add insult to injury, Fortescue now also got a taste of his own medicine, when in August 1467 he was assaulted at Ermington by John Hyndeston, a gentleman from Wonwell in Kingston. Fortescue appeared in King’s bench and paid the remaining £20 to Stonor, but simultaneously began an action against the jurors who had convicted him for perjury. In the event, his efforts proved fruitless. On 8 Oct. 1468 a triumphant Thomas Stonor was able to write to his wife that his ‘adversari of Devenshere hathe had no wurshyp: ffor ther aperyd xliij gentylmen at this day, and he is shamyd and nonsuyd in the cort to his great shame’.18 Stonor Letters, i. 78-87, 97; KB27/817, rots. 29, 29d; 827, rots. 53d, 66d, rex rot. 17d, att. rot. 1; 830, rot. 20, fines rot. 1d.

However great or small Fortescue’s disgrace really was, it may have served to perpetuate his exclusion from local office, after he had finally received an official appointment, albeit only as a tax collector, in the summer of 1468. For the remainder of his life he was only to secure a single further appointment, an ad hoc commission connected with the disputed abbacy of Buckland in 1473, issued to a group of comparatively insignificant local men, although he did periodically serve on local juries.19 CP40/835, rot. 258.

Little is known of the last years of Fortescue’s life. In spite of Sir Walter Moyle’s part in the dispute with the Stonors, he appears to have remained on good terms with him, and even married his only child, Anne, to the judge’s son, John†. Relations turned sour in the later 1470s when the two men clashed over a wood in Cornwall which they held jointly. Moyle claimed that Fortescue had sold timber from the property without his assent, and moreover, in his greed to lay his hands on the proceeds had accepted far too low a price.20 C1/58/238. Fortescue died on 27 Feb. 1480, leaving as his sole heiress his 26-year-old daughter Anne Moyle.21 C140/76/60.