PARYS, Walter

Walter Parys was the son of a prominent Wells brewer, who became a freeman of the city in 1416 (John Godwin alias Glasier* acting as one of his sureties), and went on to serve as one of the city’s rent collectors in 1433-5, as constable of the peace in 1438-40 and as a member of the council of 24 from 1444 until his death.7 The MP’s father must be distinguished from two local namesakes, a fisherman and a barber, respectively admitted to the freedom of Wells in 1413 and 1436. Wells City Chs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xlvi), 136, 137, 144, 149; Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, pp. 261, 283, 285, 298, 301, 314. Walter is first heard of in early 1439, when one John Hygon accused him, his father and another kinsman of having four years earlier trespassed onto his property at Galhampton and carted off his grain.8 CP40/712, rot. 325d. By this date Parys had probably completed some training in the law, probably at London’s Strand Inn, with which he was later associated, and from the early 1440s he found professional employment as a witness, surety and attorney, not only in his native Somerset, but also in the King’s courts at Westminster. The dean and chapter of Wells and other diocesan clergy were prominent among those who regularly made use of his services, but Parys also had important lay connexions, including the future judge Richard Chokke, the Sydenham family and the wealthy Sir Theobald Gorges*.9 CCR, 1435-41, p. 370; 1447-54, pp. 32, 251; HMC Wells, ii. 75, 90, 91; Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68 (Som. Rec. Soc. lx), no. 857; Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xvi), 162-3; KB27/788, att. rot. 1; CP40/820, rot. 121; 845, rot. 335; C140/35/59; C1/32/224; 61/49.

The Parliament of 1447 was dominated by the arrest and sudden death of the King’s last surviving uncle, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and with the benefit of hindsight it is tempting to seek a factional background to the return of Parys, who many years later would sit in another highly controversial assembly. The opposite may have been the case: it seems that many of the urban constituencies concentrated in the south-west of England experienced considerable difficulties in finding local men prepared to undertake the journey to the provincial backwaters – first Cambridge and in the event Bury St. Edmunds – to which the Parliament had been summoned. Many communities evidently availed themselves of the services of professional lawyers based in the south-east, and in Parys the men of Wells had at least found a representative with strong local credentials, even if he did not yet possess the ultimate qualification of the freedom of the city, and would not gain it for another eight years.10 Wells City Chs. 149; Wells convocation act bk. 1450-1553, p. 18. Moreover, his services came cheap, as he agreed to undertake the journey to Bury St. Edmunds for a fee of just 20s., a contract which his father guaranteed.11 Wells convocation act bk. 1378-1450, p. 320. There is no suggestion that Parys was in any way associated with the court faction around the duke of Suffolk, hostile to Gloucester. Indeed, he was probably already connected with the duke’s former chancellor, Henry VI’s secretary, Thomas Bekynton, the bishop of Bath and Wells whom he served as an attorney from at least the early 1450s.12 KB146/6/32/4; KB27/764, rots. 7d, 63d, 114; HMC Wells, i. 498, 499.

Subsequently, Parys’s life was dominated by his legal practice and by the needs of his inn of Chancery, which he may have headed for several years. He was repeatedly forced to go to law to recover its revenues.13 Baker, Men of Ct. ii. 1198. His private clients included successive sheriffs of Somerset and Dorset, as well as the chapter of Wells cathedral which, following Edward IV’s accession, paid him the substantial sum of £1 4s. 8d. for his services in securing letters of pardon from the newly-crowned monarch.14 HMC Wells, ii. 91. While Parys maintained his legal practice throughout the 1460s, in the second half of the decade he began to play a growing part in the life of his native city. In the autumn of 1467 he was among the leading citizens of Wells chosen to supplement the depleted ranks of the council of 24, and a year later he became one of the constables of the peace. His prior experience of both the Commons and the Westminster courts and administration probably made him appear a reliable candidate to represent his neighbours in the Parliament summoned in the fresh dynastic upheaval of Henry VI’s readeption. His fellow Member on this occasion was Richard Vowell*, who had not only been his fellow constable a year earlier, but who was in addition a kinsman of the master of Wells, William Vowell*.15 Wells convocation act bk. 1450-1553, p. 83.

If Vowell, with whom Parys was regularly linked in both professional and personal transactions, was perhaps his closest associate among the citizens, he also possessed other contacts, occasionally acting as an arbiter in his neighbours’ disputes, and periodically pursuing personal litigation at the guildhall.16 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, nos. 873, 885; HMC Wells, ii. 690, 697; CCR, 1468-76, no. 799; CP40/834, rot. 303d; Wells convocation act bk. 1450-1553, pp. 97, 98, 117. By and large Parys enjoyed cordial relations with his fellows, but there was at least one occasion in the summer of 1478 when he fell foul of the civic authorities and was summoned to appear before the master and council to answer certain articles. He twice failed to appear, but nevertheless managed not only to avoid expulsion from the freedom, but to secure election as one of the auditors of the city accounts in that year and in the three immediately following, while apparently serving an unbroken spell on the city council.17 Wells convocation act bk. 1450-1553, pp. 121, 123, 125, 127, 131. Parys last appears in the records of the Wells convocation in the spring of 1484, when he gave evidence before the mayor and council regarding an enfeoffment of his lands. He is last recorded in the early months of Henry VII’s reign as one of the feoffees of William Bythemore, and may have died not long after. The John Parys of Wells who in June 1478 stood surety for Bishop Stillington was probably his son or another kinsman.18 Ibid. 141; HMC Wells, ii. 690; CFR, xxi. 490; C1/61/49.