RINGBOURNE, William

The Hampshire MP was the third William Ringbourne in succession to fall heir to the family estates. His grandfather, who had married Edith Rockley, a second cousin of William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, served the bishop as steward of the episcopal estates from 1386 until he died in 1400. By his will of 1403 Bishop Wykeham left Edith a handsome bequest of £100, and £20 to her son (our MP’s father), but although the bishop also settled on the Ringbournes an interest in tail in certain of his own manorial holdings, these were never to pass to their line (rather, descending in that of Sir Thomas Wykeham*, the bishop’s principal heir). Nevertheless, the Ringbournes remained closely involved in the affairs of Winchester College, their kinsman’s foundation, and it was probably there that young William was schooled.4 Reg. Wykeham (Hants Rec. Soc. 1899), ii. 386; R. Lowth, Life of Wykeham, p. xli; G.D. Squibb, Founder’s Kin, 189; Winchester Coll. muns. 7; CPR, 1436-41, p. 514. His father, who received a licence from Bishop Wykeham to have religious services conducted in his private chapel, inherited the manors of Afton, Boldnor and Marsh on the Isle of Wight, as well as a moiety of the manor of Barton Stacey and lands at Chalgrove on the mainland, all of which were valued at £60 p.a. in the tax assessments of 1412. He served as escheator of Hampshire in 1403-4 and sheriff in 1420-2.5 Feudal Aids, vi. 454; Reg. Wykeham, ii. 520. When he died, on 8 Sept. 1422, the future MP was still a minor, aged 15, and because the moiety of Barton Stacey was held of the King in chief by knight service, he became a ward of the infant Henry VI. On purchasing the property at Barton Stacey, Ringbourne’s grandfather had agreed that a rent of £10 p.a. would be paid to the previous owner Stephen Hayme† and his heirs. This annual rent was now due to Nicholas Carew† of Beddington (Surrey) in right of his wife Mercy (Hayme’s daughter), and it was to Carew that, on 27 Apr. following, the Council awarded keeping of this estate during William’s minority. Carew was required to support the ward.6 C139/5/39; CFR, xv. 33; VCH Hants, iv. 418-19; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 482-4.

The young man’s mother, Agnes, took as her second husband John Holcombe, whom she married without royal licence before 22 May 1427, and it was presumably Holcombe who pressed for a formal assignment to her of dower at Barton. This was made in July following, when she was assigned a room called ‘Presteschamber’ along with a stable, gatehouse and some 500 acres of land. Holcombe, who was to outlive his stepson, retained at least for his wife’s lifetime the Ringbourne manors of Afton and East Parley in Christchurch, which were doubtless included in Holcombe’s tax assessment on lands valued at £32 p.a. in 1436.7 CPR, 1422-9, p. 398; C139/5/39; Feudal Aids, ii. 354; VCH Hants, v. 100; E179/173/92. All this reduced William’s potential income. Perhaps he served in France in the 1420s, for he failed to make formal proof of age until 22 Oct. 1429, when he was already 22. Seisin of the part of his patrimony not in the possession of his mother and stepfather was made shortly afterwards. Curiously, his marriage had been sold by the Crown, for £60, just a few days earlier on 5 Oct., to the obscure John Latton and John Estmonde the elder.8 CFR, xv. 278; C139/46/52; CCR, 1429-35, p. 2. Very likely these two were acting on behalf of Robert Long, the prominent Wiltshire lawyer, who guaranteed the payment. Jure uxoris Long held the other moiety of Barton Stacy, and around this time he acquired from the Carews the annual rent due from the Ringbourne portion. From Long’s point of view it made good sense to marry Ringbourne to a daughter of his own. Some such close relationship would explain William’s involvement in a number of Long’s property transactions in the 1430s, his enfeoffment of Long and his friends in land in Dorset in 1432, and the settlement in 1438 of the reversion of the manor and advowson of Draycot Cerne, Wiltshire, on him for life and then in tail to three of Long’s sons.9 CP25(1)/207/32/29; KB27/684, rot. 55; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 477, 497, 510; CPR, 1436-41, p. 346. Then, too, when in 1442 William conferred on his wife, Elizabeth, jointure in his properties at Barton Stacey and at Figheldean and Tidcombe in Wiltshire, Robert’s son Henry Long* was named as a feoffee; and in the following year both Robert Long and William Long, the parson of Priston, were party to the settlement on the couple and their issue of holdings in Potterne in Wiltshire, and of Ringbourne’s manor of East Parley.10 C139/138/18.

In the 1420s Robert Long would also have been well aware that Ringbourne was one of the heirs apparent of the substantial estates in Wiltshire and Hampshire belonging to the distinguished diplomat and former Speaker Sir William Sturmy, who had no legitimate sons. Sturmy’s heirs were his surviving daughter, Ringbourne’s mother Agnes, and John Seymour I*, the son of his late daughter Maud. In his will in March 1427 the knight left personal bequests to both his grandsons (Seymour and our MP),11 PCC 7 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 55); CIPM, xxii. 714-19. but his estates, worth over £126 p.a., were not all divided between Agnes and Seymour, for he had made generous provision for his bastard son John Sturmy* and his nephew and right-hand-man Robert Erle*. Furthermore, while Seymour’s influential contacts enabled him to take possession of his share of the inheritance shortly after Sturmy’s death (and Sturmy’s feoffees quickly handed over to him the bulk of the Wiltshire properties), there was some delay before Agnes received hers.12 CFR, xv. 177-8, 198; CCR, 1422-9, p. 349. She was clearly at a disadvantage, and although she did obtain the Sturmy manor of Liss in Hampshire this remained in the hands of her husband Holcombe until his death in 1455, by which date our MP had also died.13 C139/161/2; VCH Hants, iv. 84. There is no mention of the Ringbourne interest in the Sturmy estates in the lawsuits brought by Seymour in the 1450s, which, in any case, were not resolved until after William Ringbourne’s death: C1/18/45, 46; 19/112. It was not until 1447, that, following the death of his mother, Ringbourne mounted a challenge against his cousin (Sir) John Seymour for a fair partition of the former Sturmy estates, of which Seymour had received the lion’s share. Their negotiations ended with a lop-sided agreement, which did, however, enable Ringbourne to settle the Wiltshire manors of Figheldean and Titcomb on his wife in jointure, and to entail them on their issue.14 Wilts. Hist. Centre, Marquis of Ailesbury mss, 1300/141-2; CPR, 1446-52, p. 414.

Earlier in his career Ringbourne had occasionally gone to law to gain confirmation of his title to parts of his patrimony. In 1419 an action of formedon of the manor of Brixton on the Isle of Wight had been sued against his father by Thomas Wayte (a neighbour at Barton Stacey), which action was ‘compromytted’ upon certain persons, each party being bound to the other in 1,000 marks to abide their award. This award was eventually made and sealed. But after William Ringbourne senior’s death our William could not discover the whereabouts of this document, and when he found that one John Cadnan had it, the latter refused to hand it over unless Wayte’s son and heir was present. Ringbourne petitioned the chancellor to summon both men to Chancery so that the award could be unsealed and the chancellor make a ruling.15 CP40/635, rot. 335d; C1/73/80.

Ringbourne’s public career was unexceptional. Although he attested the indenture for the shire elections at Winchester in 1433, and was listed among those in Hampshire required to take the oath against maintenance in the following year, when elected to Parliament in 1437 he lacked experience in local government. His first royal commission was to distribute allowances on taxes granted at the end of the parliamentary session, a task followed a few months later by appointment as escheator. On 7 Dec. 1441 he was granted for life the office of riding forester in the New Forest in reversion after the death of Walter Veer*, but he never secured it as his grant was quickly superseded by another in favour of Henry Trenchard*, an esquire in the King’s household. Compensation came on 10 Mar. following, in a commitment to Ringbourne and a chaplain, John Porteland, of the keeping for seven years of the priory of St. Helens, on the Isle of Wight, which Veer had previously enjoyed. This latter grant was dated by authority of the Parliament in which Robert Long and three of his sons were sitting as Members of the Commons (for various of the Wiltshire boroughs), and it seems likely that they had been instrumental in obtaining it on Ringbourne’s behalf.16 C219/14/4; CPR, 1429-36, p. 396; 1441-6, pp. 33, 37; CFR, xvii. 210. He may also have owed the lease to his connexion with John Berewe*, a kinsman who enjoyed some influence as an esquire in the King’s chamber. Berewe stood surety at the Exchequer for him, and also agreed to be a feoffee of his principal manors for settlement on his wife in jointure.17 C139/138/18. Ringbourne served with Berewe on all three of the royal commissions on which he served in the early months of 1442. These arose from an act of piracy in the Channel, in which a Breton barge and its cargo of wine had been wrongfully seized and taken to Southampton Water, ending up in the liberty of Beaulieu abbey. All the commissions were headed by Sir Stephen Popham*, whose election to the same Parliament Ringbourne had attested in January. The Parliament assigned Popham to be chief commander of a large naval force to patrol the Channel that summer. Ringbourne may well have served under him, for in August he received delivery at the Exchequer of lances, bows and arrows to help equip the fleet.18 CPR, 1441-6, pp. 49, 77, 78; C219/15/1; E403/745, m. 13.

Ringbourne died on 10 Mar. 1450, and was survived by his wife and three sons, of whom the eldest, Robert, was aged about 13. Eight days later the boy’s lands and marriage were granted in wardship to Richard Danvers* and John Somerby, clerk, who at an unknown date transferred guardianship to Sir John Chalers*. Transactions regarding Figheldean had been completed without royal licence, and Ringbourne’s widow and feoffees had to pay a fine of £12 to ensure Elizabeth’s continuing possession of her jointure.19 C139/138/18; CFR, xviii. 150; CPR, 1446-52, p. 414. Ringbourne died intestate: C40/789, rot. 447d. Before long she took as her second husband John Blake, esquire.20 C139/176/27. During the minority of Robert Ringbourne, (Sir) John Seymour wrested possession of the former Sturmy manors of Wolf Hall and Crofton in Wiltshire from his cousin John Erle*, and further strengthened his grip on his late grandfather’s valuable estates. He persuaded Chalers to bear half the legal expenses of maintaining the rights to Wolf Hall and other property, to the use of Seymour and Ringbourne as coheirs, but then, before he died in 1464 he successfully negotiated with young Robert that henceforward he, Seymour, and his descendants would keep all the estate at Wolf Hall, Great Bedwyn and Crofton, in return for an annuity payable to Ringbourne and his heirs for their share.21 Marquis of Ailesbury mss, 1300/115-24, 143.

Two of the MP’s sons, both named after their father, were educated at Winchester College: the elder William from 1449 until his early death, and the younger William from 1454 until 1461, when he left ‘animo deserendi studium’. The latter succeeded to the Ringbourne estates on his brother Robert’s death in October 1485.22 Winchester Scholars ed. Kirby, 66, 69; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 70, 83. Much later, in the 1520s, Thomas Bruyn, one of our MP’s descendants, challenged Sir John Seymour† for a moiety of the estates at Wolf Hall and Crofton, whereupon Seymour asserted that his ancestors had purchased the whole from the Ringbourne coheirs.23 C1/464/48; Marquis of Ailesbury mss, 1300/158.