MIDDLETON, George

It has been suggested that George was an older brother of David Middleton†, who was to be returned for the same constituency, Dorchester, just a few years later, to the Parliament of 1467. Yet this reasonable conjecture does not bear close examination. A man of Welsh parentage whose early career was focused on Denbighshire, David adopted his surname from Middleton in Shropshire where he settled, and he needed to purchase letters of denization to become eligible for office in England. As there is no sign that George ever sought such letters, it would seem that the two Middletons were not closely related; the fact that they represented the same borough may have been merely coincidental. Not only was George of obscure background, but his usual place of residence has not been discovered. When first recorded, on his appointment as alnager in Dorset in 1452, he chose as his mainpernors men who came from Warwickshire and Chester rather than the south of England, so it looks as though Dorset was not his native county.3 CFR, xviii. 244. Even so, later that year he was appointed escheator there and in Somerset. Although not recorded among the Exchequer clerks in receipt of fees, Middleton established links with the Exchequer, where in January 1454 he received an assignment on behalf of Robert Rolleston, former clerk of the great wardrobe.4 E403/796, m. 9. Furthermore, in November following he successfully obtained the keeping of moieties of two manors forfeited by Sir Edward Brooke*, Lord Cobham, for which he agreed to render £10 p.a. As escheator he had previously accounted for these moieties, and had taken the opportunity to petition to have them at farm.5 CFR, xix. 116.

Yet if Middleton did find employment at the Exchequer, this did not further his career under the Lancastrian regime, and even though the alnagership had been granted to him for 20 years he lost the post in 1458, well before the end of his term. It was only after the Yorkist victory at Northampton in 1460 that he came to the fore. That autumn he was returned to Parliament for Dorchester. Since he is not recorded holding property in the town, nor as acquainted with any of the burgesses, it seems likely that he was an outsider, albeit one who must have been known locally through his earlier posts as alnager and escheator. That he offered tangible support to the new regime is clear: as soon after the accession of Edward IV as 15 July 1461 he was granted for life the office of porter of Clarendon, and two days after that he was named on a commission to arrest the disruptive Robert Tanfeld and bring him before the King. In this particular task he was associated with John Stourton II*, Lord Stourton, and his son (Sir) William Stourton* and, significantly for his later career, also with the new King’s friend Humphrey Stafford IV*, Lord Stafford of Southwick. The fact that he was now styled ‘esquire’ is an indication of his improved status, and perhaps of his attachment to a noble retinue. At the end of the year and together with two other ‘esquires’ (William Gosse*, who had also sat in the Parliament of 1460, and William Seward), he was granted for life the manor of Huntspill Marsh in Somerset, worth in excess of £36 p.a., and recently forfeited by James Butler, the late earl of Wiltshire.6 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 37, 86, 96. It is not known precisely when Middleton officially became a yeoman of the Crown, but as such he obtained exemption from the Act of Resumption of 1464.7 PROME, xiii. 202.

In the course of the 1460s, Middleton drew closer to Lord Stafford of Southwick. Together in 1464 the two men released to the lawyer Thomas Tropenell* any title they might have had to lands in Cricklade and Hindon in Wiltshire, which had been the subject of litigation,8 Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 72. and Stafford subsequently named him among the feoffees of certain of his west-country estates to perform his will.9 C140/32/30. Other transactions provide no more than a glimpse of Middleton’s standing. For instance, in 1466 he was at Heytesbury in Wiltshire to witness a deed for Margaret, Lady Hungerford and Botreaux, and two years later he witnessed a quitclaim by Sir Theobald Gorges* to John Worsop* of estates in Dorset. At an unknown date the bishop of Salisbury appointed him to administer the goods of John Heth, a former canon of his cathedral who had died intestate.10 CCR, 1461-8, p. 395; 1468-76, no. 133; CPR, 1467-77, p. 141.

Middleton’s movements during the tumultuous events of the summer of 1469 are not documented. The deeply unpopular Lord Stafford was elevated to the earldom of Devon in the spring, but having been sent by the King to combat the northern rebels, he was executed by his enemies at Bridgwater in the aftermath of the battle of Edgcote. Whether Middleton had joined his force is not known. What is certain is that the chaotic state of the late earl’s affairs caused him considerable difficulties, for as one of his feoffees he was summoned to Chancery to testify in a suit brought by the abbot of Glastonbury over the implementation of Stafford’s testamentary provisions.11 C1/38/214. Less controversially, along with his co-feoffees he made presentations to churches in the late earl’s patronage in the 1470s.12 Reg. Stillington (Som. Rec. Soc. lii), 193, 242, 370. Middleton was present for the parliamentary elections held in Somerset in 1472, and continued to hold his post of porter at Clarendon, although suffered the inconvenience of having to sue one of the officers of the sheriff of Wiltshire of 1469-70 over his failure to honour a bond for £6. He eventually gained judgement from the barons of the Exchequer, allowing him an additional £1 as damages.13 E13/157, Hil. rot. 23d. George died shortly before 16 Apr. 1479, when William Middleton, an esquire of the royal Household who may have been his son, was granted the porter-ship of Clarendon in his place.14 CPR, 1476-85, p. 157.