TEMYS, Thomas

It is uncertain whether this MP or his brother William was the older of the sons of Nicholas and Joan Temys, by whom the manor of Rood Ashton (in the west of the county near Trowbridge) was held in jointure from 1402.5 Wilts. Feet of Fines, 219. By 1433 Joan had been widowed and had taken as her next husband Robert Salman† of Calne. Rood Ashton was then settled on the Salmans and their issue, with successive remainders in tail to William Temys and then to his brothers Thomas and John in turn, with a final remainder to Walter Hungerford†, Lord Hungerford, and his heirs. It may therefore be conjectured that the Temys family were related in some way to the Hungerfords, or else that the entail merely reflects the ties of feudal lordship.6 Ibid. 472. Perhaps Thomas took second place to William in this entail as provision had already been made for him through his marriage to the minor heiress Agnes Christchurch.

Agnes was the grand-daughter of the former Salisbury MP John Levesham, from whom she inherited land in Old Sarum, two messuages and carucates called ‘Duldres’ and ‘Cormailys’ in Netheravon, and more buildings and land in Everley and Stratford sub Castle, in all worth some £3 p.a. While she was still a child her claim to inherit estates in Dorset (notably the manor of Duller in Lychet Matravers), through descent from her maternal grandmother, was successfully challenged by the Husseys, and these passed accordingly to Thomas Hussey I*.7 CIPM, xxi. 17, 489; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 466, 596. Agnes’s wardship had been purchased from the Crown by John Fruysthorp*, and it was probably he who arranged her marriage to Temys, which took place before she made proof of age on 11 June 1427. Jurors at Marlborough stated that she had been born at Salisbury and baptised in St. Edmund’s church there, and had reached the age of 15 eight months earlier. Her guardian Fruysthorp was now dead, but in the following October his widow and executors stated that there was no reason why Agnes’s lands should be withheld from her and her husband. Accordingly, they were given seisin by order of 8 Nov.8 CIPM, xxii. 828; xxiii. 143; CCR, 1422-9, p. 350.

The couple took up residence on the estate she had inherited at Netheravon, six miles north of Amesbury. In 1428 Temys sued a man from Hampshire for stealing a horse worth £5 there, and he was styled ‘of Netheravon, gentleman’ in a suit brought by Robert Onewyn II* for a debt of four marks in 1436.9 CP40/669, rot. 411d; 700, rot. 18d. That year he and Agnes obtained a licence from the King to enfeoff his brother William and Thomas Pakyn* of a messuage, six tofts, a carucate, and more than 300 acres of land which they held in chief, to implement an entail on them and their issue. This was duly completed with the addition of the bailiwick of the hundred of Everley, which they held in fee.10 CPR, 1436-41, p. 26; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 506. In 1440 Nicholas Calton, the archdeacon of Taunton, leased to Temys the rectory of Netheravon and the free chapel annexed to it, with the tithes and fruits pertaining to them, for one year, in return for the payment of 50 marks, but after the archdeacon’s death his executors (who included William Gascoigne II*) alleged in Trinity term 1444 that Temys still owed 25 marks. Temys produced an acquittance in court, but the suit continued nevertheless.11 CP40/734, rot. 427.

The status of the Temys brothers among the gentry of Wiltshire had been indicated in 1434 when Thomas and William were required to take the oath against maintenance as administered in their county.12 CPR, 1429-36, p. 371. Thomas was also becoming well known in Salisbury, where he and his wife held property, including two messuages settled on them and their issue in 1439.13 Wilts. Feet of Fines, 521. A year earlier he had begun to take a part in the city’s government, on being elected alderman; and he went on to be chosen reeve in 1441. He also began to attend civic assemblies, but not with much regularity, for he is only recorded at four such meetings before his election as one of Salisbury’s MPs.14 First General Entry Bk. 347, 353, 377, 396. Nor did he make much of a contribution when loans were demanded from Salisbury by the Crown. In 1441-2 he proffered half a mark towards a loan of 40 marks, and he failed to give anything in July 1444 towards a loan of £40.15 Ibid. 368C, 391. Temys’s election to the Parliament summoned to Cambridge on 10 Feb. 1447 (the venue was subsequently altered to Bury St. Edmunds) was held in an assembly of members of the two city councils on 18 Jan., when initially his chosen companion was Philip Morgan*, the town clerk. However, before they set off Morgan was replaced for unexplained reasons by the Dorset landowner John Mone*. The two ‘gentlemen’ agreed to attend the Parliament for half the normal wages of 2s. a day, and eventually received £4 between them for a session which lasted just 22 days.16 Ibid. 408-9.

Afterwards, Temys had little to do with Salisbury, although he did participate in the next parliamentary elections, held in the city on 5 Feb. 1449. He made no contribution towards the loan of £66 demanded by the Crown in July that year, and after 2 Nov. he ceased attending convocations.17 Ibid. 423, 425, 431, 436. Although Temys was a juror at sessions of oyer and terminer held in Salisbury in May 1462, in the following year he and his wife relinquished possession of two messuages and a garden in Salisbury (perhaps the same as had been settled on them 23 years earlier) to Agnes Cormayll alias Knollys, probably a kinswoman of hers.18 KB9/135/30; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 648.

Little is recorded of Temys thereafter. The date of his wife’s death is not known, but like their son Robert (who died on 12 Sept. 1473), she predeceased him. In Michaelmas term 1473 Robert’s widow sued her father-in-law for a third part of the manor of Netheravon as her dower. The MP himself died on 16 Mar. 1475.19 CFR, xxi. nos. 161, 280; C140/43/11; 51/15. His heir was his young grandson William, who had been born at Netheravon on 13 Dec. 1471. After making proof of age in 1493, he duly inherited his grandparents’ manor there. The male line of this branch of the Temys family ended at William’s death in 1502; his heir was his sister Joan, wife of Nicholas Wardour.20 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 919; VCH Wilts. xi. 169; CFR, xxii. no. 760.