UVEDALE, William II

William, a younger son of the wealthy John Uvedale, was educated with his older brother Thomas at Winchester College, the foundation with which his family had longstanding and close connexions. His father set aside for his inheritance the family manor of Brownwich, which in November 1434 John conveyed to feoffees headed by their distant kinsman Reynold West, Lord de la Warre, and including his nephew Reynold Peckham*, Richard Dallingridge* and William himself. It passed into William’s sole possession before 1444. In that year ten pokes of wool of unknown ownership were discovered hidden under straw in a barn of his ‘on the sea coast’, awaiting shipment overseas without due payment of customs. It is unclear whether Uvedale himself was being accused of wool-smuggling, or if it was his servants who had made the discovery.7 Add. Chs. 40277-81; CPR, 1441-6, p. 344.

Although the sheriff of Surrey and Sussex appointed in February 1430 was called ‘the younger’, it is far more likely that William’s uncle, William I*, took up the office, for the uncle then occupied the family manor of Titsey in Surrey, and was in any case a figure of greater consequence. The younger man attested the parliamentary election indentures for Hampshire in 1442, 1447 and 1450 (on all three occasions in the company of his brother Thomas, and on the second also with his nephew, Henry*), and his diligent service on ad hoc commissions of local government began in the meantime. His brother was present at the shire court at Winchester for his election to the first Parliament of 1449.8 C219/15/2, 4, 6; 16/1. The two remained close in both their personal and public affairs for the rest of their lives, and over the years frequently acted together in Crown service. Both enjoyed cordial relations with Bishop Waynflete, who in 1453 appointed William keeper of his park at Bishops Waltham for life, and a year later granted him and his wife licence to have a portable altar, so they might hear mass in private. When, in October 1462, proceedings were heard at Winchester regarding claims to the manor of Winnall, challenging the title of the prior of St. Swithun’s, four members of the Uvedale family (including William) supported the latter’s contention that Waynflete’s predecessor, William of Wykeham, had donated the estate to the priory. William was present, too, in February following when the tenants of the bishop’s manor of Alverstoke made a supplication to Waynflete regarding their rents and services, and he witnessed a lease of property in Taunton, granted by the bishop in 1466.9 Surr. Arch. Collns. iii. 98-99; Reg. Common Seal (Hants Rec. Ser. ii), 360, 397; CCR, 1461-8, p. 231.

The pattern of Uvedale’s career reveals no particular bias towards either Lancaster or York, for his appointments to commissions continued regardless of the political changes of the 1450s and 1460s. In November 1461, during the early months of Edward IV’s reign, he joined his brother in standing surety under a pain of £100 for Reynold Uvedale†, his nephew, the newly-appointed escheator of Hampshire, guaranteeing that he would diligently perform his office and render full accounts at the Exchequer. William was in a position to advise his nephew, for he himself had filled the post a few years earlier. Although he was not formally appointed to the Hampshire bench, he nevertheless presided with his brother over sessions of the peace held at Winchester at Easter 1462. He was listed for jury service there in 1466, but not pricked in the event. Uvedale once more attended the parliamentary elections at the shire court in 1467, then witnessing the returns of his nephews, Reynold and Henry, for the county and Portsmouth, respectively.10 CCR, 1461-8, p. 106; KB9/299/25; 314/86, 87; C219/17/1. He was not listed on the peace commissions of July and Nov. 1461: C66/492, mm. 22d, 24d.

The Uvedales’ standing in the locality inevitably led to their involvement in the landed transactions of their neighbours and other members of the gentry. Both William and his brother were feoffees of manors in Sussex for their late father’s friend Richard Dallingridge, and he acted in a similar capacity for the lawyer Richard Holt* and for members of the Wallop family.11 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 462-3; Suss. Feet of Fines (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii), 3087; Add. Ch. 17434; Surr. Arch. Collns. iii. 107 (although here he is confused with one of his nephews and namesakes). Occasionally such committments led him into difficulties, as when William Bedyll, son and heir of John Bedyll, alleged in a petition to Chancery that he and his co-feoffees of his late father’s property in Southampton had refused against all conscience to transfer it to him.12 C1/41/319-20. Naturally enough, Uvedale assisted his brother, now Sir Thomas, to make settlements of land to the benefit of his third wife and younger sons towards the end of his life, and he was named as an executor of Sir Thomas’s will in 1473.13 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 392, 400; Add. Ch. 24638; CPR, 1476-85, p. 523; PCC 16 Wattys (PROB11/6, f. 115).

Little is recorded about William’s own private life, although he may have married for a second time, if he is the man described in December 1472 as husband of Sir Thomas Chetwode’s sister and heir Elizabeth, who then made a release of the manor of Preston in Banstead, Surrey.14 Manning and Bray, ii. 586. But even it this was the case, the elderly Elizabeth predeceased him and they left no children. William was summoned at Michaelmas 1475 to give evidence in a suit in Chancery over the disputed Dallingridge inheritance between (Sir) Roger Lewknor* and the Exchequer official Thomas Pound*. Doubtless he supported the latter, who had long been associated with him as a co-feoffee of the Dallingridge estates and more recently as a fellow executor of his brother’s will.15 C1/66/44. He is last recorded in April following when as an executor of John Bedyll he transferred possession of two houses in Southampton to ‘God’s House’ hospital to provide prayers for the testator’s soul.16 Queen’s Coll. Oxf., God’s House deeds, 554.

Uvedale died before Michaelmas 1477, by which date his elder son, Thomas, had taken possession of his lands at Bishops Waltham, Meon and elsewhere, as well as of the manor of Brownwich. Thomas also succeeded him as parker of Bishops Waltham, being granted the post for life by Waynflete in April following, in consideration of his fidelity, prudence and industry. He had represented Portsmouth in the Parliament assembled earlier that year, on 16 Jan. 1478.17 Add. Chs. 40279-81; Reg. Common Seal, 375. After being educated at Winchester from about 1468, William’s younger son, Anthony, progressed to New College in 1479, only to die a year later.18 Winchester Scholars ed. Kirby, 81; Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. ed. Emden, iii. 1938-9.