NEWTON, William

The identification of the man who represented the duchy of Cornwall borough of Helston in the autumn Parliament of 1449 presents some difficulties, not least since his name was a common one.1 It is improbable that the MP was, as Wedgwood believed, the Somerset landowner William Newton† (d.1453) of Swell who had represented Dorchester in 1413: HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 632. It is possible that Newton was an otherwise obscure local man, or at least hailed from the wider county of Cornwall: a William Newton was among the jurors taking the inquisition post mortem of the widow of Sir William Lucy* at Launceston in January 1467,2 C140/20/29, m. 13. and another man of the same name had been reeve of the duchy manor of Helston-in-Trigg in 1404-5.3 SC6/813/22, m. 1; 819/15, rot. 5.

If Newton was an outsider, it is likely that he was one of several south-western MPs in the Parliament of November 1449 who were connected with Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon. A man of this name, a mason from the Courtenay manor of Coliton, was in the earl’s retinue at the sacking of the house of William, Lord Bonville*, at Shute in December 1455,4 KB27/787, rex rot. 4 (ii). and a namesake, probably a younger kinsman, was reeve of Coliton in 1499-1500.5 SC6/HenVII/1096, rot. 12d.