LEYBOURNE, Robert

Almost certainly a younger son of Sir Robert Leybourne, this MP was from one of Westmorland’s leading families. He is probably to be identified with the esquire who, as a very young man, served in the retinue of Roland Thornburgh† in the 1420 expedition to France, but he was not destined to make a career in war.1 E101/49/36, m. 2. Family connexions explain his election for Appleby to the Parliament of 1429. Junior members of local gentry families not infrequently represented that borough, and Geoffrey Threlkeld*, elected with our MP in 1429 provides another example. Both Leybourne’s putative father and Geoffrey’s kinsman, Sir Henry Threlkeld*, numbered among the county electors in that year, and it may be that they used their influence to secure the return of their kin.2 C219/14/1. While sitting as an MP, Leybourne pursued a matter of his own. On 14 Oct. 1429, during the first of the Parliament’s two sessions, he came into the King’s bench to bring a bill against one John Westfield, a prisoner in the Marshalsea, alleging that on the previous 19 Sept., three days before Parliament’s assembly, Westfield had broken into his house in the London parish of St. Clement Danes and taken cloth worth four marks. The plaintiff was twice in court in the following month, again during the parliamentary session, first to win costs and damages of 23s. 8d. and then to acknowledge payment.3 KB27/674, rot. 21.

Leybourne’s tenure of a house in St. Clement Danes demonstrates a connexion with the legal profession, perhaps as a student at one of the inns of Chancery there, and it is worth observing that, in Michaelmas term 1427, he had represented his putative brother when Nicholas accounted in the Exchequer as escheator of Cumberland and Westmorland.4 E159/204, Mich. rot. 3. This in turn suggests another reason for his election, namely a readiness, as one with interests in London, to serve without wages.

After his sole appearance in Parliament, Leybourne’s career, despite his legal training, does not seem to have flourished. Only three references to his activities have been traced for the 1430s: in 1432, as ‘of Westmorland, gentleman’, he offered mainprise for the alnager in Herefordshire; in 1437 described as ‘of London, gentleman’, he stood surety in Chancery for a Sussex husbandman; and in the following year, on this occasion as ‘of Kendal, gentleman’, he was a surety in King’s bench for the payment of fines by Sir Henry Threlkeld and several of the knight’s servants.5 CFR, xvi. 111; C237/41/63; KB27/709, fines rot. This latter arrangement led to difficulties for, in Hilary term 1443, he appeared in person in the court of common pleas to sue those fined, presumably because they had defaulted on payment.6 CP40/728, rot. 455. This, however, is one of the few references to him as a litigant, and in view of this obscurity it is surprising to find him added, in the following spring, to the quorum of the peace in both Cumberland and Westmorland. The explanation probably lies in the royal decision to increase both quorums from four to six and the paucity of suitably qualified local lawyers. Our MP had his family, if not his activity, to recommend him. Later, in the summer of 1450, he was entrusted with the further task of acting as a subsidy commissioner in his native county, but he appears to have died soon after. Although he was alive later in that year, when process was pending against him as the administrator of the goods of a local esquire, John Roos, he was not named to the Westmorland commission of the peace of 1454.7 E371/204, m. 56; 207, m. 46; CFR, xviii. 170; CP40/756, rot. 344; CPR, 1452-61, p. 680.