NEWPORT, William

Of little consequence before the late fourteenth century, the Newports owed their status to William’s father. Robert Newport appears to have inherited no more than a single manor at Munden, Essex, but greatly augmented his holdings by marrying one of the sisters and heirs of Sir Walter Lee. Margery brought him several manors, situated at Furneux Pelham and Stapleford in Hertfordshire and Tolleshunt Knights and Salcott Virley in Essex, as well as other lands in the two counties. The estates he held at his death were worth at least £82 p.a. but possibly far more. Although initially connected to Richard II’s court, Robert grew in local prestige and influence after the usurpation of Henry IV. A man of impressive connexions, he was an executor of Agnes, Lady Bardolf, and a trustee for Aubrey de Vere, earl of Oxford, Joan de Bohun, countess of Hereford, members of the Bourgchier family and other important figures.4 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 831-2; P. Morant, Essex, ii. 393; VCH Herts. iii. 477; iv. 101-3. Robert’s biography (The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 831-2) claims that Margery brought him a manor at Brent Pelham, but this is not the case. It also fails to mention that the manor of Salcott Virley was part of her inheritance. The longevity of his widow Margery (who subsequently married John Durham† and then Henry Hert) meant that their son is unlikely to have taken full possession of the Newport estates until late in life. It is unclear whether Cecily, William’s own wife, brought him any lands other than a third part of the manor of Dalby, Lincolnshire, held in dower from her previous marriage to Richard Corbet. In 1424 John Streteley and his wife Alice, Corbet’s sister and heir, sued William and Cecily in the court of common pleas, alleging that they had committed waste on the property.5 CP40/655, rot. 647.

An early death ensured that Newport never had the opportunity to play as prominent a part in local government as his father, although he twice gained election to the Commons during his short career. He first comes into view in September 1423 when he attested the return of his cousin, John Barley* (son of his aunt Joan Lee), and William Flete* as Hertfordshire’s knights of the shire to the Parliament of that year. By the end of 1423 he had begun to act as a witness and feoffee on behalf of other local landowers, a role he continued to perform until the end of his life.6 CCR, 1422-9, pp. 128; 1429-35, pp. 115, 181-2; CAD, i. C1168; vi. C4228, C4521, C4358; CPR, 1429-36, p. 343. There is no evidence that he was the William ‘Neuport’ who served in France in the early 1430s (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Clairambault mss, 207/111-120; fr. mss, 25770/622, 25771/821). It would appear unlikely that he was the soldier, given that in this period he was active as a feoffee, sat in Parl. and served as an ad hoc commr. First returned to the Commons before he had attained any position in local government, he was appointed a j.p. in Hertfordshire shortly after his election to his second Parliament. The problem of law and order was a matter of particular concern for this assembly and both the Lords and Commons swore an oath to refrain from the practice of maintenance.7 PROME, xi. 79-80. Shortly after it was brought to a close, Newport, his fellow Member for Hertfordshire, William Flete, and all the other knights of the shire were commissioned to administer the oath to the residents of their respective counties.

Newport died on 25 June 1434, just six months after the dissolution of the Parliament of 1433, and was buried in St. Mary’s, the parish church at Furneux Pelham.8 CIPM, xxiv. 216-17; PCC 28 Wattys (PROB11/6, f. 216). His heir was his seven-year old son George, but a settlement which he had made in Cecily’s favour in 1432 ensured that she retained much (if not all) of George’s inheritance for the rest of her life. Following Newport’s death Cecily took a third husband, Sir William Tirwhit*. This marriage was followed by two others, those of George Newport to Tirwhit’s daughter, Margaret, and of his sister, Elizabeth, to Adam, the knight’s eldest son.9 C67/39, m. 40; Cussans, 148-9. Tirwhit died in 1451 but Cecily survived until an advanced age. Following her death in 1477, she was buried beside the MP at Furneux Pelham.10 PCC 28 Wattys. The church still contains an impressive marble tomb bearing the brasses of a man and woman. VCH Herts. iv. 104 suggests that it is the burial place of the MP and his wife, but N. Pevsner, Buildings of Eng.: Herts. 145, says it is probably that of Newport’s parents. George Newport, who died in 1484, was succeeded by Robert, his son by Margaret Tirwhit.11 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, ser. 5, vii. 67; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 628-9. George had remarried after Margaret’s death in the late 1460s. His widowed second wife, Elizabeth, was assigned her dower lands from the Newport estates in 1486. In one of the deeds drawn up when this arrangement was made, Robert is described as her ‘son’, but there is no doubt that he was her stepson, given that he was born in the early 1450s: CCR, 1485-1500, no. 122; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 628-9. The latter’s son and successor John died in 1523, after which the Newport estates passed to his daughter Grace, who married Henry Parker†, the son and heir of Henry Parker, 10th Lord Morley.12 VCH Herts. iii. 477; iv. 102.