MORISLAWE, Thomas

Morislawe does not seem to have been engaged in overseas trade and was almost certainly a lawyer. In June 1433, described as ‘of the bishopric of Durham, gentleman’ he stood surety in a grant made to another lawyer, Robert Lambton*.3 CFR, xvi. 154. He was probably then only a young man, for no more is known of him until the early 1440s. In the summer of 1441 he was named alongside two more prominent north-eastern lawyers, Robert Rodes* and Robert Whelpington*, to deliver Newcastle’s gaol, and on 17 Jan. 1442 he was among those present to witness Rodes’s election to Parliament.4 C66/450, m. 32d; C219/15/2. More significantly, on the following 13 Mar., he was granted the custody of the smaller part of the statute staple seal in Newcastle and it is tempting to suggest that this was secured for him by Rodes while he was present at Westminster as an MP. Later , on 1 Feb. 1447 he was himself elected as one of the parliamentary burgesses for Newcastle, and in July 1448 he was appointed to another gaol delivery commission.5 CPR, 1441-6, p. 57; C219/15/4; C66/466, m. 38d.

One reference shows that Morislawe’s concerns were not entirely confined to the north-east. In December 1447 he acquired a remainder interest in property in the in the London parish of St. Mary Abchurch expectant on the deaths of one John Bedell and his wife Elizabeth, the widow of the son of John Woodcock† (d.1409) a mercer and former mayor of London.6 Corp. London RO, hr 164/48, 194/21; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 896-8. This may have been a purchase on his part, but, if so, it was probably one he made towards the end of his life, for he seems to have died relatively young. The namesake who was active from the early 1460s was probably his son. This Thomas built significantly on the foundations laid by his putative father. He made his career in the palatinate of Durham, from whence the family probably originated, serving as a justice of assize there in the early 1470s and marrying, in 1472, the widow of Sir William Lumley of Ravensworth.7 DURH3/4, ff. 12, 25v; 49, mm. 1, 2, 6; 50, mm. 13, 16, 16d.