STOUGHTON, Peter

The Stoughtons were prominent figures in Guildford in the early fifteenth century. John Stoughton† junior represented the borough in the Parliament of 1419, and his older namesake attested the returns of the knights of the shire for Surrey at elections held in Guildford on eight occasions between 1407 and 1422. He was joined in the shire court by other kinsmen a number of times. The most important member of the family was Thomas Stoughton, an attestor of indentures for 20 of the Parliaments summoned between 1407 and 1437, active in county administration as a coroner,2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 489-90; CCR, 1405-9, p. 161; 1413-19, pp. 57, 136, 168. and mayor of Guildford in 1421-2. Peter appears in a family pedigree as a younger son of Thomas,3 Add. 6167, f. 198; VCH Surr. iii. 371-2. and in the early 1430s he received from him a grant of lands and tenements in the hundreds of Dorking and Blackheath.4 Add. 6174, f. 10. He established himself as a landowner with holdings in several places close to Guildford, notably at Stoke and Shaldford, and his property in the town itself provided the links with the burgesses which led to his election to Parliament in 1447.5 CCR, 1454-61, p. 361. Yet this ‘gentleman’ or ‘yeoman’ remains obscure, and his precise relationship to the brothers John* and Thomas Stoughton*, who represented two of the Cinque Ports in the same Parliament at Bury St. Edmunds, has not been discovered.

In the winter of 1458-9 Stoughton found himself in serious trouble and faced with the forfeiture of his property. Accordingly, he placed his goods and chattels in the hands of the Essex esquire Henry Lewis on 1 Dec. 1458, and on the following 1 Jan. he authorized Lewis to enter all his property at Stoke, Shaldford and Guildford, receive all rents and services due there, and prosecute in the law-courts any actions as seemed needful for Peter’s advantage. Four days later he procured royal letters of attorney as going overseas. His destination and the purpose of his journey are not recorded, but there can be little doubt that he was intent on fleeing prosecution for serious criminal activities. That same month indictments presented before the j.p.s at Guildford alleged that he (here accorded the alias of Cradeler), had in December 1457 organized an armed raid on the house of Thomas Wynnale of St. Nicholas’s parish in Guildford, from which he had stolen a large quantity of household goods, including cloth and pewter vessels worth a total of £10. Furthermore, less than 12 months later, in September 1458, he had committed another felony by stealing six horses worth £6 from Richard at Lee, one of his neighbours at Stoke.6 Ibid.; DKR, xlviii. 434; KB9/291/81, 82. Stoughton failed to appear when summoned to the court of King’s bench on five separate occasions between Easter 1459 and Easter 1461, these defaults probably leading to his outlawry.7 KB27/792, rot.107; 793, rot.153d; 795, rot.107d; 798, rot.123; 800, rot.15. Meanwhile, Henry Lewis had petitioned the chancellor, Bishop Waynflete, to complain that Peter’s kinsman Henry Stoughton had refused to release to him a messuage, 60 acres of land and 12 acres of meadow in Stoke in accordance with Peter’s instructions.8 C1/26/564. Nothing more is heard of him.