ROCHE, Robert

Roche was resident at Barwise, two miles from Appleby. If one assumes that the attestor of six Westmorland elections between 1407 and 1442 was one man, his career was a long one, but it did not begin in earnest until the mid 1420s. His return to represent Appleby in 1425 was slightly irregular. According to the indenture, drawn up in the county court on 19 Apr., the mayor of the town and the two bailiffs, one of whom was Roche, had, with the assent of the town community, elected John Helton* and another whose name has been erased. Roche’s has been added over the erasure in a different hand and ink from the rest of the indenture.1 C219/13/3. It may be that one of those originally elected had refused to serve, and that Roche was a late substitute. But there is another plausible explanation. At the time of the election Roche was suffering under the disability of an outlawry for failing to answer the widow of Thomas, Lord Clifford, for a debt of £12. Not until 25 Apr., five days before Parliament was due to assemble, did he secure a pardon for this outlawry. Perhaps his is the name erased after he initially refused election pending this pardon.2 CPR, 1422-9, p. 246.

After Roche’s service in Parliament he became sporadically active in local affairs. From 1430 to 1447 he sat several times on juries of gaol delivery and made other appearances on panels.3 JUST3/70/5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19. More interestingly, between 1434 and 1443 he served on several Westmorland inquisitions post mortem, including those of Constance, widow of Thomas Mowbray, earl of Norfolk, William Crackenthorpe*, and Sir Christopher Moresby† (for whom he also served on the Cumberland jury).4 CIPM, xxiv. 164; xxv. 120, 214; xxvi. 132-3. He was clearly a man of some modest standing and this is confirmed by the subsidy returns of 1436 when he was assessed on an income of £5 p.a. Little is known of the lands from which this income was drawn save that they lay, predominantly or exclusively, at Barwise.5 E179/195/32. He was often referred to as of that place: CPR, 1422-9, p. 246; CP40/677, rot. 98; KB27/703, rot. 33d. He was generally styled ‘gentleman’, but once called ‘franklin’: CP40/685, rot. 38d. Of his occasional appearances in the legal records the most significant dates from Hilary term 1437 when he was among those against whom John Borell, a mercer of Appleby, claimed damages of £100 for assaulting him at ‘Sydergate’. If our MP was guilty of this offence he was acting at the behest of his wealthy neighbour, Sir Henry Threlkeld*, who was pursuing a vendetta against Borell. He was, however, probably innocent: on the following 14 Aug., before the justices of assize at Appleby, he was one of only two of the defendants to be acquitted. He last appears in the records in Trinity term 1449 when the deputy sheriff of Westmorland, John Dacre, son of Thomas, Lord Dacre, had an action for a debt pending against him.6 KB27/703, rot. 33d; CP40/754, rot. 254.

There is one other reference that may refer to Roche. In Hilary term 1405 a Robert Roche and Alice, his wife, had been sued by a clerk, Robert Camberton, for forcibly taking a chest with charters at Camerton in Cumberland; they replied by suing him for a third of more than 1,500 acres of land in Camerton and nearby vills as Alice’s dower from John Camberton. If this litigation did concern our MP, it is the only indication that he ever had interests in Cumberland.7 CP40/576, rot. 191d.