METFORD, Robert

Robert was one of many kinsmen of the distinguished brothers Richard Metford (d.1407), bishop of Salisbury, and Walter Metford (d.1423), dean of Wells and prebendary of Bedwyn in Wiltshire. The two brothers made a settlement on Robert’s parents – John, the son and heir of Thomas Metford, and his wife Eleanor – of seven messuages and 75 acres of land in Abingdon, all of which later descended to our MP.4 CP40/902, rot. 450d. Although John was not mentioned in the will the dean made in 1421, it seems likely that his father Thomas had been another of the churchmen’s brothers, meaning that the MP was their great-nephew.5 Reg. Chichele, ii. 250-6.

On his appointment as a tax collector in Berkshire in 1431, Metford’s father was called ‘of Blewbury’ (situated a few miles south of Abingdon), and he was prominent enough in the county to be required to take the oath against maintenance of peace-breakers as administered there in 1434.6 CPR, 1429-36, p. 402. In the 1420s and 1430s he often served as a juror at inquisitions post mortem in Berkshire, including those held following the death of the influential Thomas Chaucer*.7 CIPM, xxii. 745; xxiii. 299, 300; xxiv. 7, 19, 280, 349, 686. Robert himself was first recorded in February 1445, as an attorney nominated to deliver seisin of the Berkshire manor of Church Speen on its sale by Reynold, Lord de la Warre, to John Roger I*,8 E326/5754, 11291 and in the following year he was enfeoffed of the manor of South Moreton in the same county on behalf of Thomas Rothwell†, to provide a jointure for Rothwell’s third wife.9 C146/3624; C148/72; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 235-6. Yet it was not for a Berkshire constituency but rather for the Wiltshire borough of Marlborough that Metford was elected to the Parliament of 1450. He had no known links with the borough itself, although at some point before the mid 1460s he took up residence in Shalbourne, situated just inside the county border, a few miles from Hungerford and close to Bedwyn where his kinsman the dean had been prebendary. In the first half of the century lands in Shalbourne had belonged to William Coventre† of Denford, who gave some of his holdings, together with a messuage in Chalton, to William Darell*. It was the latter’s son and heir Sir George Darell who demised them to Metford and his wife Alice in 1472, to hold for term of Alice’s life plus one year thereafter, with remainder to William Coventre’s grand-daughter. It therefore looks likely that Alice was a member of the Coventre family.10 CAD, vi. C6091; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 678-9.

After his only known Parliament Metford was active in Wiltshire as a juror at sessions of oyer and terminer in 1452 and 1453,11 KB9/134/1/13, 16, 34. and attested the shire elections to the Parliament of the latter year. One of the knights of the shire returned on that occasion was John Seymour II*, whose family were important landowners in east Wiltshire and held property in Marlborough. Metford was associated with Seymour and his father as witnesses to deeds later in the decade.12 Wilts. Hist. Centre, Savernake estate mss, 9/6/22, 24. He once more attended the county court at Wilton for the elections of 1455. Metford was called to be a juror at inquisitions post mortem in the county in the same period of the late 1450s, and also at assizes of novel disseisin regarding the claims of the lawyer Thomas Tropenell* to property in Hindon and Cricklade.13 C139/158/28, 171; 173/25; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 58-59, 61-62.

There is no firm evidence to indicate Metford’s political stance in the civil war years, although it may be inferred that he was a Yorkist by persuasion. He was present at the Yorkist stronghold at Newbury for the Berkshire elections held on 24 Sept. 1460,14 C219/16/6. when the county returned Thomas Roger* (son and heir of John Roger, with whom Metford had earlier been connected). Thomas was newly-released from imprisonment in Wallingford castle where he had been placed by the Lancastrians before the battle of Northampton, and was elected together with Sir Robert Harcourt*, who had also been prevented from fighting on the Yorkist side in the battle. It was to be on Thomas Roger’s nomination and as his deputy that Metford served as under sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire in 1464-5. It is a measure of his competence that he was kept on for the succeeding term (1465-6) by the next sheriff, Thomas Stonor II*, during which period he had dealings with Thomas Roger and Edward Langford* ‘for the quenys gold’. He sent reports to Stonor with regard to this and other administrative matters, such as writs sued against ‘my maister Restwold’ and ‘Delamar’, a ‘privy session’ near Hungerford, and communications with the Darells of Littlecote.15 Stonor Letters, i. 87, no. 83; C47/37/9/12. While under sheriff of Oxfordshire for a third time, in 1470, Metford petitioned the chancellor Bishop Stillington about the obstructive behaviour of certain scholars at the university of Oxford, who were planning to aid the escape of a prisoner in his custody. He asked the chancellor to send him a writ of corpus cum causa so he could bring the prisoner to Chancery out of reach of the trouble-makers.16 C1/46/307.

Metford was still active in 1475, as a feoffee of land in Hungerford and a juror at sessions of the peace at Salisbury.17 Berks. RO, Misc. Unofficial Collns. D/EX84/1; KB9/136/4, 79. A new neighbour (Sir) Thomas Frowyk II*, who had purchased the manor of Shalbourne, engaged his services in transactions regarding other of his holdings in Berkshire in July 1481.18 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 58. His association with the Roger family of Lambourn had continued, and in 1482 John Roger II* (the younger brother of Thomas) bequeathed to him chattels worth five marks so that he would assist in the conveyance of his body to its place of burial.19 PCC 24 Logge (PROB11/7, f. 181). It is not known whether Metford was still alive and able to carry out his friend’s wish when John eventually died in March 1486. He had been appointed to deliver the gaol at Reading in February 1485, but himself died at an unknown date before November 1487. As he left no issue, the heirs to the family property in Abingdon were his nephew Nicholas Bone (the son of his sister Alice) and niece Alice Petyr (daughter of his other sister Eleanor).20 CP40/902, rot. 450d.