SUTTON, Robert I

A striking reference saves Sutton’s career from near total obscurity. When commissioners of oyer and terminer, headed by John, duke of Bedford, sat at Derby on 1 Apr. 1434, Sutton, described as ‘senior, of Derby, yeoman’, was indicted for having on the previous 29 May broken into the house of Richard Becham in the town and there murdered Becham’s wife, Anne, with a staff. Since Robert himself sat on the jury drawn from the town it is not surprising that it was left to one of the grand juries to make this presentment.2 KB9/11/10d, 16d. It is not known whether his alleged offence arose out of the struggle which disturbed the peace of Derby in the early 1430s, but it is clear that Sutton was a supporter of the faction headed by the Stokkes family and John Booth* and representative of the most substantial townsmen. By the time the commissioners came to Derby this faction had regained control, and this is reflected both in Sutton’s election as bailiff and his election to Parliament (while in office) in company with Booth. If he was guilty of the crime alleged against him then he was elected to Parliament having committed murder only a few weeks before.3 He is named as an attestor to his own return, but this probably reflects no more than a temporary change in diplomatic practice: C219/14/4. He was, however, quick to clear himself. Early in June 1434 he pleaded not guilty in person in the court of King’s bench. He was saved from the inconvenience of imprisonment while awaiting trial by the mainprise offered on his behalf by Ralph de la Pole, a Derbyshire lawyer who later rose to the judicial bench, and Richard Brown†, the former clerk of the peace. Thereafter process was extraordinarily expeditious. He was acquitted by a jury sitting before the justices of assize at Derby on the following 24 July. His reliance on a jury rather than a pardon is suggestive of innocence.4 KB27/693, rex rot. 2.

Sutton appears to have lived into the late 1440s or, at least, either he or a namesake was then active. On 2 Nov. 1447 he was a juror in the inquisition held at Derby on the death of Elizabeth, widow of William, Lord Deincourt, and Sir Richard Hastings*, and he attested the borough election to the Parliament of November 1449.5 CIPM, xxvi. 493; C219/15/7.