STAFFORD, William

Born as a younger son to one of the wealthiest knights in southern England, Stafford led a career typical of a man of his standing. Like many of his peers, he sought his fortune on the battlefields of France and in the summer of 1432 indented to fight abroad with a retinue of 30 men-at-arms and 150 archers.7 E403/703, mm. 13, 15; E404/48/322; DKR, xlviii. 285, 287; CPR, 1429-36, p. 218; H.L. Ratcliffe, ‘Military Expenditure of Eng. Crown 1422-35’ (Oxf. Univ. M.Litt. thesis, 1979), 81-83. The expedition, led by the Lords Camoys and Hungerford†, linked up with the army of the Regent of France, the duke of Bedford, and Stafford soon became attached to the duke’s personal retinue. He probably distinguished himself in Bedford’s company, for the duke granted him a life-annuity of £40 from the manor of Frampton.8 CPR, 1436-41, p. 399; R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 193-4. However, Duke John’s sudden death in September 1435 left Stafford without a patron, and this may have played a part in his decision to return to France in the retinue of John, Lord Talbot, the following March.9 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, nouv. acq. fr. 8602/23. He did not remain abroad for long. By the autumn of 1437 he was back in England, where the government now called upon his services and pricked him sheriff of Somerset and Dorset. This was the first of four such appointments in a space of less than ten years, and Stafford’s heavy load of administrative duties was compounded by a string of additional ad hoc commissions. It was not uncommon for former sheriffs to face prosecution by the Westminster authorities, as well as private individuals, for their conduct in office, and Stafford was no exception. In November 1438 Thomas Norton* of Bristol complained that the former sheriff had failed to release two horses which he had impounded, in spite of having received a fine for their return.10 E5/510. In the autumn of 1442 Stafford was fined 100s. for his failure to ensure the appearance in Chancery of a Somerset man, and around the same time he was still being pursued by the Exchequer for various sums of money derived from his Gloucestershire shrievalty of three years earlier, many of them old debts of predecessors in the office and all of them payments which he claimed never to have received.11 CFR, xvii. 252; E13/142, rot. 54d.

While still serving as sheriff in Gloucestershire, Stafford had been elected to his only Parliament as knight of the shire for Dorset. Although technically barred from sitting in the Commons at the time of his election, by virtue of his office, he could nevertheless claim not to be in breach of any statute, for he had neither returned himself, nor would he still be a serving sheriff when Parliament was due to assemble on 12 Nov. The opening sermon was given by the chancellor – Stafford’s uncle of the half-blood, John Stafford, bishop of Bath and Wells, whom he was currently serving as steward of the episcopal estates.12 Reg. Stafford, ii. 238; PROME, xi. 247. William made good use of his time at Westminster, seeking a royal grant in recognition of his service in France to replace his annuity from Bedford, which had expired with the duke’s death. Unfortunately for him, the rewards at the Crown’s disposal were by this time severely limited, and he had to be content with a grant of the reversion of the Dorset manor of Fordington to fall in after the death of Isabel Mortimer, now wife of John Cheyne I*, but within a year of the grant he was able to gain control of the manor in return for a payment of £100 to the Cheynes.13 CPR, 1436-41, pp. 399, 540; B.P. Wolffe, R. Demesne in English Hist. 282; Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x), 360-1. The government continued to rely heavily on his services, and in the following months he was regularly appointed to royal commissions in his native shire. He established a link with the King’s great-uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, who granted him an annuity of £20, and was prepared to lend him further money when required.14 Test. Vestusta ed. Nicolas, i. 254; G.L. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort, 380; K.B. McFarlane, Eng. in the 15th Cent. 135. Alongside Beaufort, Stafford was appointed a keeper of the Benedictine abbey of Milton, which had been taken under royal control following a long period of misrule,15 CPR, 1436-41, p. 403. and by the end of his life he was also serving as constable of Taunton castle by appointment of either Beaufort or his successor, Bishop Waynflete.

More important in the long run was the marriage which Stafford’s father had contracted for him in 1437: his bride was one of the daughters and eventual heiresses of the wealthy Sir John Chideock.16 CCR, 1435-41, p. 483; Arundell mss, AR36/4. Already identified with the court by virtue of his connexions with Bishops Stafford and Beaufort, William found himself drawn into the circle of John Stourton II*, later Lord Stourton, who during the 1440s became increasingly influential both in the government and the south-west, and whose son and heir had married the other Chideock coheiress.17 Patronage, Crown and Provinces ed. Griffiths, 128, 141. Another prominent member of Stourton’s circle was Sir William Bonville*, later Lord Bonville, who had longstanding connexions with the Staffords and in particular with William’s father, Sir Humphrey. In May 1447 William Stafford was associated with Bonville in taking sureties for the peace, and in 1448 he served as a feoffee for William, Lord Harington, whose daughter and heiress had married Bonville’s son and heir.18 CPR, 1446-52, p. 211; CCR, 1441-7, p. 480.

Stafford’s relations with his kinsmen by marriage were not, however, always without tension. His elder brother, Sir Richard, had died young, leaving a single daughter, Avice, who married Sir James Butler, the son and heir-apparent of the earl of Ormond.19 CP, x. 128; C139/164/16. Stafford was less than pleased to see the bulk of his ancestral estates pass into the hands of Butler when his father died in 1442, and the ill-feeling between him and Sir James broke out into open violence in the summer of 1444, when their retainers clashed in Dorset, at Lower Kingcombe and Toller Porcorum. While Stafford claimed that he and his servants had been assaulted by Butler and his retainers (including William Browning I* – his fellow MP of 1439, Henry Filongley* and Walter Cheverell*), one Edith, widow of John Yerdeley appealed him of her husband’s murder, claiming that he had cut his victim down with a blow of a doublehanded sword to the back of the head. Another cause of dissension was Stafford’s alleged seizure of the goods of Richard Porter, altogether said to be worth £375 13s. 4d., and including the enormous sum of £240 in cash, various items of silver plate, 80 oxen and 100 sheep. According to Stafford’s version of events, Porter had before his death willingly surrendered the goods and money to him, but the now deceased man’s executors (his widow and Sir James Butler) claimed that the goods had been forcibly seized by Thomas Hussey I* and handed over to Stafford. The ensuing litigation was complicated by the partisan attitude of the sheriff of Dorset, Robert Cappes, who, despite accepting a bribe of 20 marks from Stafford, embezzled a writ of venire facias, and colluded with his enemies in empanelling a jury of prominent men from other counties, including Sir Maurice Berkeley II*, (Sir) John Lisle II*, Sir Theobald Gorges*, Baldwin Fulford* and John Roger I*. It is uncertain how the matter was settled, but in the late spring of 1446 Stafford and his associates were granted royal pardons.20 E13/144, rots. 2, 11, 19, 20; CP40/738, rots. 123, 321, 339d; CPR, 1441-6, pp. 438, 439. The position as chancellor of his uncle, now Archbishop Stafford, no doubt eased his extrication from the legal processes.

It is possible that the drawn-out quarrel with his niece’s husband took its toll on Stafford’s finances, for four years later he sought to avail himself of the statutory provisions promising financial reward to informers, by bringing a suit against the unscrupulous lawyer Thomas Tropenell*. He accused Tropenell of arranging for the bribing of a jury by Robert Hungerford, Lord Moleyns. The staggering sums which Moleyns was said to have paid (amounting in total to more than £110) suggest that the charges were probably trumped up, but the defendants’ agreement to negotiate may indicate that there was at least some truth in the matter.21 CP40/756, rot. 370. About the same time Stafford also clashed with John Roger of Bryanston, whom he accused of depriving one of his servants, William Seward, of his horse when he was travelling on the King’s highway near Bryanston to consult various lawyers on his master’s business.22 CP40/756, rot. 369.

Although after the death of Sir Humphrey Stafford substantial parts of the family estates had passed by marriage to Sir James Butler (created earl of Wiltshire in 1449), Sir Humphrey had not neglected his only surviving son, William, to whom he bequeathed quantities of valuable plate. In addition, it was then, in the early 1440s, that William acquired the Stafford manors of Lutterley in Staffordshire, and Chelmarsh, Quatte and Lyehall in Shropshire, as well as other holdings in Oxfordshire, Middlesex and London, and more of the Stafford estates descended in tail-male.23 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 442; Hants RO, Jervoise of Heriard mss, 44M69/490-3. In a reflection of his enhanced status an increasing number of communities and institutions sought to curry his favour. Thus, by 1446 the abbess of Syon was making gifts to him ‘to have his good will, support and counsel’ in her affairs; in 1448-9 the bailiff of Bridgwater accounted for wine presented to him, and in July 1449 the citizens of Salisbury settled on him an annuity of £5 ‘for his good counsel and help’, following this in October with a reward of 6s. 8d., as well as 3s. 4d. to one of his servants.24 SC6/1103, m. 9; Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68 (Som. Rec. Soc. lx), 757; First General Entry Bk. Salisbury (Wilts. Rec. Soc. liv), 431, 433; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Salisbury city recs., acct. rolls, G23/1/44, no. 2.

Also in 1449 occurred an episode in Stafford’s career that to date remains unexplained. According to a later copy, a list of the peers attending the Parliament of February 1449 recorded the presence of a ‘Lord Southwick’, a title derived from one of the Stafford family estates. If a Lord Southwick had indeed been summoned to the assembly, perhaps by verbal command or by a now lost writ issued after the opening of Parliament, William Stafford would appear to have been the most likely candidate, especially as in 1461 his son Humphrey would be summoned to Parliament by Edward IV as Lord Stafford of Southwick and without any formal creation – a circumstance which suggests hereditary succession. However, neither the rolls of Parliaments of February and November 1449 nor the writs on the close rolls record a summons to any peer of such title. Moreover, contemporary chronicles and official records of the following year all style Stafford merely as an esquire, suggesting that if any such creation had been intended it was never put into effect.25 Myers, 75-76; Speculum, xvii. 403, 407; C54/299, m. 24d; CPR, 1461-7, p. 325; CP, iv. 327. Powell and Wallis confuse Humphrey Stafford I of Grafton, who died in 1450 at Sevenoaks alongside William, and William’s nephew Humphrey Stafford II*, who survived until 1461 (but is not known to have held the manor of Southwick), and suggest that it was the latter who was summoned to the Lords on just a single occasion in Feb. 1449, when he was present in Parl. as MP for Dorset: J.E. Powell and K. Wallis, House of Lords, 489.

Whatever the truth of this matter, Stafford’s fortunes improved dramatically when Sir John Chideock died in March 1450. Chideock had no male heir, so his lands were divided equally between his two daughters, Stafford’s wife Katherine and her sister Margaret, the wife of William Stourton*. Royal writs ordering the transfer of the estate to the heirs and the assignment of dower to Sir John’s widow were swiftly issued, and Stafford looked ready to settle down to enjoy his wife’s inheritance, when southern England was suddenly in uproar.26 E159/231, brevia Mich. rot. 8, Easter rot. 8, Trin. rot. 6; CFR, xviii. 159-60; CCR, 1447-54, p. 153. Towards the end of May the commons of Kent rose under the leadership of Jack Cade. Accordingly, Henry VI and the lords assembled in Parliament at Leicester hastened back to London, and on 18 June the King himself marched out to the rebel encampment at Blackheath, accompanied by an armed force and an artillery train, only to find that the insurgents had retreated under the cover of darkness.27 Griffiths, Hen. VI, 612. Stafford had been among those commissioned to array Somerset, but soon joined the royal household and together with his cousin (Sir) Humphrey Stafford I* of Grafton was dispatched on a reconnaissance mission to establish the whereabouts of the main body of rebels. When they tracked down Cade’s men to the outskirts of Sevenoaks, they foolishly resolved to attack, despite having only a small body of men with them, arrogantly ‘wenyng to haue gotenne a singuler worshippe and laude’.28 English Chron. (Cam. Soc. lxiv), 66. Before they knew it they were overwhelmed and killed along with the greater part of their following.29 E101/410/3; CFR, xviii. 133. Their killing was widely reported by contemporary chroniclers: Letters and Pprs. Illust. Wars of English ed. Stevenson, ii. [767]; John Benet’s Chron. (Cam. Misc. xxiv), 199; Gt. Chron. London ed. Thomas and Thornley, 181-2; Three 15th Cent. Chrons. (Cam. Soc. ser. 2, xxviii), 67; Six Town Chrons. ed. Flenley, 131, 154. It was said that William Stafford, one of ‘the mannlyste man of alle thys realme of Engelonde’, fought valiantly ‘wt a two hand sworde on horsebake’, and then on foot after ‘one wt a pike forke bare hym out of his sadle’.30 Historical Collns. Citizen London (Cam. Soc. ser. 2, xvii), 191.

Stafford’s heir, Humphrey, was aged only ten at the time of his death, and the wardship of his estates (including the manors of Southwick in Wiltshire, Compton Dundon, Marston, Great Elm, Chiselborough, Puriton and West Chinnock in Somerset, Powerstock, Frome Vauchurch, Southwell, Winterbourne, Farnham, Gussage and Milborne in Dorset), escheated to the Crown. Yet barely three days elapsed before on 21 June both wardship and the heir’s marriage were entrusted to Archbishop Stafford, Lord Bonville and William Stafford’s widow Katherine, on terms to be agreed later. No doubt these proved favourable. Stafford’s widow went on to remarry twice, first the Cornish landowner John Arundell of Lanherne, and later the Sussex knight (Sir) Roger Lewknor*. For several years she and Arundell were embroiled in litigation with Stafford’s feoffees over her dower lands, until a settlement was reached in the summer of 1458.31 CFR, xviii. 159-60; C140/71/47; CP40/779, rot. 450d; Arundell mss, AR1/940.