LYTELL, John

Not much is known about the man who represented Wootton Basset in 1447. The names of the borough’s MPs were listed last on the schedule that accompanied the sheriff of Wiltshire’s election indenture, apparently as an afterthought, since no sureties were named either. The borough had not previously returned Members, and in the absence of the grant of a royal charter there has to be some suspicion that a precept was issued to the burgesses by the sheriff, William Stafford* (a client of the treasurer of the king’s household, (Sir) John Stourton II*) in an attempt to find secure seats for candidates agreeable to the court. Lytell’s colleague, Thomas Ward*, was indeed a royal household servant, whereas by contrast no obvious candidate with whom the subject of this biography may be identified has come to light.

It is possible that he was the man of this name resident at Wakerley in Northamptonshire. By 1444 this man was connected with Reynold West, Lord de la Warre, who headed the trustees on whom Lytell settled his moveable property in that year.1 CCR, 1447-54, p. 116. Lord de la Warre’s Wiltshire possessions were concentrated in the south of the county, but it is possible that his influence at court was sufficient to ensure the return of one of his followers for the duke of York’s borough of Wootton Bassett. How Lytell came into contact with de la Warre is unclear, as are the motives that caused him to seek election in 1447. He was apparently a merchant trading in London, where in 1451 he owed the sum of £40 to the mercer Ralph March, and it is possible that he had other commercial interests in Suffolk which made a journey to Bury St. Edmunds less onerous to him than to some others.2 C241/235/60. It may also have been he, then styled a ‘gentleman’, to whom in February 1460 Thomas Thomlynson alias Bernak of Barnack (not far from Wakerley) sealed a bond, the conditions of which are otherwise unknown.3 CCR, 1454-61, pp. 444-5. If this was so, he was clearly distinct from the evidently insignificant man from Dinton, at the opposite end of Wiltshire, variously styled a merchant or husbandman, who traded in Salisbury about the same time.4 C241/243/13.