NORMANVILE, Sir William

For someone who represented his county at four separate Parliaments over 17 years, and who was evidently a substantial figure in Yorkshire society for much of Henry VI’s reign, Normanvile has left relatively few details of his life among the surviving records. Even his ancestry is not entirely certain. It is, however, clear that he came from a branch of the Normanvile family which, by the early thirteenth century, had acquired interests at Swinton in Richmondshire (in the North Riding), Smaws near Tadcaster (in the West), and Gedling and Weston, Nottinghamshire, and which was almost certainly a junior branch of a line resident at Thrybergh in the West Riding, which died out not long afterwards.2 Early Yorks. Chs. ed. Clay, xi. 286-94; W. Yorks. Archive Service, Leeds, Ingilby mss, WYL230/238; Yorks. Feet of Fines, 1-20 Edw. III (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. xlii), 30, 61; C143/336/5; R. Thoroton, Notts. ed. Throsby, iii. 13, 183. John Normanvile the elder made his will at Smaws on 13 Oct. 1408, and since the manor of Snaws was in the hands of our MP’s heir in 1462, William or his sons must have inherited that family property at some stage.3 Test. Ebor, i (Surtees Soc. iv), 352; Borthwick Inst. Univ. of York, Abps. Reg. 18 (Bowet), f. 14v; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 600. John had been described as ‘of Swinton’ in 1399: Ingilby mss, WYL230/23. However, the will did not mention William, only the testator’s sons John and Thomas and three unmarried daughters, and it therefore seems unlikely that William was the testator’s son. More probably he was the son and heir of the younger John. If so, however, he cannot have been the child of this John’s only known wife. John had married well. At some date after December 1407 he took as his wife Maud, daughter of Ralph, Lord Greystoke, and the widow of Ives, son and heir apparent of John, Lord Welles, but our MP must have been born some years before this marriage took place, for he was of age by 1418.4 CP40/661, rot. 171d; 669, rot. 98d. It is not known when Ives died, but John Normanvile must have been his widow’s husband when named as sheriff of Lincs. in 1417.

Uncertainties about Normanvile’s parentage are matched by doubts about his inheritance. It is unclear when his family acquired what would become his main residence at Kilnwick in the East Riding. Visitation pedigrees from the sixteenth century place the family there in the fourteenth century, but these appear extremely confused, and as is the case with the manor of Newton in Cleveland in the North Riding, another later in Normanvile hands, there is no clear link to the family until the first half of the fifteenth century. It seems probable that one or both of these manors came to the Normanviles by marriage, probably either with William’s own wife or possibly through his unknown mother. William’s marriage, to Elizabeth, presumably occurred no later than 1427, as their eldest son, John, was almost certainly the man of that name who attested the Yorkshire election return on 13 Jan. 1449.5 C219/15/6. At least some land in Kilnwick formed part of the inheritance of the Mauley family, which was scattered among numerous coheirs in the early fifteenth century (the manor itself being held of the priors of Watton), and it may have descended to Sir William as part of that dispersal. Newton was presumably acquired at some point after 1428, when it appears to have been in the hands of the Newton family.6 VCH Yorks (N. Riding), ii. 273-6. However, in that same year Sir William is recorded as holding part of a knight’s fee in Masham, suggesting that he had by then come into possession of part or all of the family’s property at Swinton in that parish.7 Ibid. i. 328; Feudal Aids, vi. 302. He must also have been closely connected to another branch of the Normanvile family, resident at Billingley in the West Riding. Edmund Normanvile of Billingley, probably one of the two Normanvile veterans of the Agincourt campaign, was a coroner of Yorkshire at the time of his death in 1440, and his descendants were closely enough related to the Kilnwick line for Sir William’s grandson (another William, who had no legitimate children of his own), to make an enfeoffment in 1520 leaving the reversion of his estates to members of the Billingley branch, to which they ultimately passed.8 N.H. Nicolas, Agincourt, 358; CCR, 1435-41, pp. 397, 406; E150/224/9.

While details of William’s parentage and early life are unknown, it seems likely that he followed his kinsman Edmund into a military career. A John Normanvile, probably his father, helped supervise the muster of soldiers at Southampton in 1418, alongside the Normanvile family’s overlord at Smaws, Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. It is at this time that William himself first appears in the records. Despite his youth he was both an executor and beneficiary of the will of Stephen Scrope, archdeacon of Richmond, made in 1418. Later, on 30 May 1421, he stood surety at the Exchequer for Richard Restwold* when he secured a lease of the manor of Horndon in Essex.9 CPR, 1416-22, pp. 199, 201; Test. Ebor, i. 385-9; CFR, xiv. 385. That further references to him through the 1420s are scarce is consistent with a man absent on campaign. He was probably the William Normanvile who three days earlier had secured letters of attorney prior to travelling abroad, and he may well have been knighted on the French expedition of that year.10 DKR, xliv. 625; J.W. Kirby, ‘A Northern Knightly Fam.’, Northern Hist. xxxi. 89. He was certainly a knight by Michaelmas term 1422, when, in a suit he brought with the other executors of Archdeacon Scrope, the word ‘miles’ is interlineated after his name.11 CP40/647, rot. 97.

In December 1426 Normanvile witnessed an enfeoffment by Richard Fairfax of the manor of Acaster Malbis near York to the earl of Northumberland and others.12 Yorks. Deeds, x (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. cxx), 6. This early appearance in connexion with the earl gives one of the first signs of the political affiliation which would dominate Sir William’s career. The Normanviles had enjoyed strong ties of lordship with the Percy family for many generations, and while his own tenurial links with them are poorly documented, Sir William was clearly a key member of their local affinity in Yorkshire, evident from his many personal and political dealings with the other members of this large and powerful grouping. In 1433 he was the chief witness to a grant made to the earl concerning various lands in North Deighton, and ten years later he was in receipt of an annuity of £10 from the earl in Yorkshire. It seems highly likely that this annuity had been granted him many years previously.13 Ingilby mss, WYL230/113; J.M.W. Bean, Estates Percy Fam. 92, 97. He had particularly close associations with some of Percy’s most important supporters in the region, the Plumptons of Plumpton, continuing family links which dated back at least a century.14 Yorks. Deeds, v (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. lxix), 71. In his will of 1443, Richard Plumpton named our MP as one of the men who were to dispose of property in York and Ripon to allow masses to be said for him at Knaresborough: Plumpton Corresp. (Cam. Soc. iv), p. xxxiii.

Normanvile’s first administrative appointment in Yorkshire came in March 1427, when he was appointed as a commissioner of array in the West Riding, and in September that year he witnessed a quitclaim drawn up at Aberford in favour of the West Riding knight Sir William Ryther*, concerning property in Lincolnshire.15 CPR, 1422-9, p. 405; Notts. RO, Portland of Welbeck mss, 157DD/4P/17/1. Little more is heard of him until his return to the Parliament of 1432 in company with the East Riding knight Sir Robert Ughtred*. This election seems to have come at a time when his main interests were moving to that Riding. . In December of that year (after the Parliament had ended), he was appointed to a commission of oyer and terminer concerning offences against Sir Godfrey Hilton†’s manor of Swine in the East Riding. Later, on 10 July 1434 when he was again named to a commission of array, it was in the East rather than the West Riding, as it was to be again in 1436; and on 27 Mar. 1437, soon after the dissolution of the Parliament in which he had represented his native county for a second time, he was appointed to the East Riding bench. 16 C67/38, m. 7; CPR, 1436-41, p. 593; CP40/705, rot. 388d.

On 18 Dec. 1438 Normanvile served with many other local notables as a juror for the Yorkshire inquisition post mortem of Anne, countess of Stafford, lady of the lordship of Holderness. 17 CIPM, xxv. 238. This, however, is the only evidence that he had any connexion with that great family, and it was rather his place in the retinue of the Percys that was to have a decisive influence on the second part of his career. In May 1443 he was summoned before the King along with other prominent Percy supporters to answer ‘particular causes’ brought against them by the archbishop of York, John Kemp. A dispute had been rumbling for many years between Kemp and the Percys, originally stemming from disagreements over exemptions claimed by the earl’s tenants in Knaresborough from tolls levied at the archbishop’s fairs at Otley and Ripon, and this had degenerated into open violence in July 1440, when, according to Kemp, around 700 Knaresborough men under the leadership of Sir William Plumpton* disturbed the Otley fair, and in the following spring another armed band also led by Plumpton had attacked the archbishop’s men at Thornton Bridge and Helperby, killing two of them. Now, at a royal council meeting on 10 May, Kemp complained about the ongoing violence, and the following day a number of Percy followers, including Normanvile, Plumpton, Sir Alexander Neville* and Sir John Salvayn, were summoned under pain of £1,000 to ‘leave all else and ceasing every excuse’ and appear before the King on the 31st.18 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 98-99; R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 602; PPC, v. 268-9, 273, 309. Normanvile’s precise role in these events is unknown, but as a prominent Percy supporter and a close colleague of Plumpton it seems likely that he was heavily involved in the affair.

What else is known of Normanvile’s affairs in the 1440s relates to more routine matters. On 7 Jan. 1443, Thomas Patrik, a chaplain from Pickering, released to him all his rights in a toft lying in ‘le Wend’ in Tadcaster and various other holdings there, suggesting that Sir William may have been purchasing more property in the town.19 Yorks. Deeds, i. 164. In the summer of 1444 he was one of the chief witnesses to a number of transactions between the Langdale and Fairfax families, seemingly relating to the marriage of John, son and heir of William Langdale, and Elizabeth, daughter of Guy Fairfax.20 E. Riding of Yorks. Archs., Chichester-Constable mss, DDCC/149/26/E2, E5, F1. The Normanviles had longstanding links with the Fairfax family, and in the sixteenth century parts of the Normanvile estate would pass to the descendants of a later marriage between the families.21 VCH Yorks (N. Riding), ii. 273-6; C1/577/35-39. Also in 1444, together with Peter Gerard*, Sir William brought a plea in the palatinate court of Lancaster against a number of Lancashire men for forcibly taking cattle from their land at Clayton-le-Woods, Whittle-le-Woods and Brindle, but unfortunately the nature of his relationship with Gerard and the assailants is unknown.22 PL15/6, rot. 12. In April 1446 he witnessed a charter as part of a settlement made by the Yorkshire peer, John, Lord Scrope of Masham, and his wife Elizabeth of land in Essex, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.23 CCR, 1447-54, pp. 506-7.

Sir William’s final elections to Parliament, in 1447 and November 1449, were indicative of the polarization of political society in Yorkshire, with the Percy supporter Normanvile being elected on both occasions alongside the Neville man, Sir James Pickering*, by electorates dominated by Percy and Neville retainers.24 A.J. Pollard, North-Eastern Eng. 157, 248; C219/15/4, 7. However, these appearances would prove to be Sir William’s last major service to his lord. He had made his will a few months before his final election, on 10 June 1449, and died within 19 months. He asked to be buried in the choir of All Saints’ church in Kilnwick, clearly indicating that, whatever his origins, Kilnwick was firmly his home by this date.25 Test. Ebor. ii (Surtees Soc. xxx), 138; Borthwick Inst., York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 215. He made specific bequests of lands to his two younger sons, with William receiving lands in Newton in Cleveland in the North Riding, and Thomas property in Tadcaster and Howden, while his wife Elizabeth and his eldest son and heir, John, were to receive whatever goods remained after the payment of various bequests to local churches and religious houses. He left money for the fabric of Kilnwick church and the minsters at York and Beverley, a vestment for the church of Tadcaster and sums of money to the Gilbertine nuns of Watton, the Cistercian nuns of Hampole and the various friaries in Beverley. The prioress of Hampole at this time, Margaret Normanvile, was probably a relative.26 She was prioress from 1445 until around 1452: D.M. Smith, Heads of Religious Houses, 652. Sir William was presumably still alive on 29 Nov., when he was named in the East Riding peace commission, and there is nothing to suggest that he died during the course of the Parliament, which closed at Leicester in June 1450.27 In his will of Dec. 1450, Robert Rolleston, provost of Beverley Minster, left 26s. 8d. and a horse to a William Normanvile, but it is unclear whether this was Sir William himself or his 2nd son: Test. Ebor. ii. 138-41. Probate was granted to his widow and eldest son on 28 Jan. 1451. Elizabeth made her own will ten years later on 20 Apr. 1461, also asking to be buried at Kilnwick, and probate was granted on the following 10 Sept.28 York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 452. Along with bequests to her three sons, Elizabeth left £40 to each of her two unmarried daughters, Margaret and Alice. Another daughter, Agnes, appears to have married before Sir William’s death, as an enfeoffment, seemingly part of a jointure agreement, was made to her and her new husband, Thomas Boynton (d.1461) of Acklam (North Riding), on 8 Feb. 1449.29 Ingilby mss, WYL230/234.

Elizabeth’s will gives a poignant and tragic insight into the perils of gentry life during this troubled period. After bequests to many of the same religious houses favoured by her husband, she left detailed instructions for the inheritance of various items, tempering the bequests to her two eldest sons with the phrase ‘if they are still living’, and adding a separate clause containing arrangements should Margaret, wife of her eldest son Sir John, be pregnant at the time of his death. The phraseology used may not be unique, but the fact that it was written only 22 days after the battle of Towton gives her words added significance. Shortly before the battle, Henry VI had written to Sir William Plumpton, steward of Spofforth, asking him to bring reinforcements to resist the Yorkist army, and the Normanvile brothers were probably among those who joined Plumpton in riding to Henry’s aid.30 Plumpton Letters (Cam. Soc. ser. 5, viii), 26. In the aftermath of the carnage, it seems highly likely that Elizabeth, although living only around 30 miles from the battle site, made her will still uncertain about the fate of her sons, although probably fearing the worst. Almost certainly, both sons did indeed die in the battle, as in 1491 the inquisition post mortem of her youngest son, Sir Thomas Normanvile, recounts a deed of enfeoffment made on 8 July 1462, by which he had enfeoffed various local men with what appears to be his family’s entire landed estate, comprising Kilnwick itself, the manors of Great and Little Houghton, Smaws, Cold Coniston in Craven and Newton in Cleveland, and property in Tadcaster, Billingley, Lowthorpe, Bainton and Middleton.31 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 600. Thomas was kntd. by Apr. 1469: CCR, 1468-76, p. 116. In 1476 he released his right in the manors of Gedling and Weston to Robert, son of John Roos* of Laxton, but it is not clear whether this was a new alienation or the confirmation of an old one: CP25(1) /186/40/14. In any event, there is no record that our MP held these manors, although he may have done. Thomas was clearly the head of the family at that point, little more than a year after the battle, and appears to be in possession of all the lands mentioned in his father’s will. This enfeoffment was probably made not only in the aftermath of family tragedy at Towton, but perhaps also in order to secure Thomas’s inheritance against Yorkist repercussions. At least in this it seems to have been successful.