YERBURGH, William

The family of Yerburgh had been established at Yarburgh near Louth since the time of the Norman Conquest. Its antiquity did not bring it any great distinction, although it did play a modest part in public affairs. Sir John Yerburgh† represented Lincolnshire in the Parliament of 1325 and another John† represented Grimsby in that of January 1339. Later in the century a third John was clerk of the wardrobe to the duke of Lancaster, and early in the next yet another John was one of the clerks of the court of common pleas. The latter founded a junior branch of the family settled at Reepham near Lincoln.2 Lincs. N. and Q. xii. 174-82, 243-5; xiii. 7. Against this background our MP’s career is a curious one. The Yerburghs certainly did not number among the leading gentry families of their native county, but it is odd, nevertheless, that William, as the head of its senior branch, should have chosen to establish himself among the burgesses of Grimsby.3 The MP is to be distinguished from his namesake of Lincoln, graceman of the guild of weavers there in 1451: CP40/761, rot. 85.

Yerburgh’s father, assessed on an income of £20 p.a. in the subsidy returns of 1436, was a feoffee and annuitant of Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby (d.1452), and William himself began his career in Willoughby’s service.4 Lincs. Archit. and Arch. Soc. vi. 80. In 1436 Richard was in receipt of an annuity of £5 13s. 4d. from Willoughby: E163/7/31, pt.2. In the summer of 1437 he appeared in the Exchequer on three occasions to receive moneys due to Lord Willoughby both for his annuity assigned on the customs of Boston and for the large retinue he was about to take to France.5 E403/727, mm. 5, 6, 9. This connexion with Willoughby may have been the context for the profitable marriage Yerburgh had contracted by early in 1447. His wife’s parentage is uncertain, but there can be no doubt that she was heiress of small manors at Theddlethorpe (called ‘Tyeys’ alias ‘Billinygay’ manor), on the Lincolnshire coast not far from Louth, and at Slaithwaite in the West Riding of Yorkshire.6 Lincs. AO, Peake, Snow and Jeudwine mss, PSJ2/64/1; CP40/787, rot. 1441; Lincs. N. and Q. xii. 181; xiii. 5-6.

None the less, even with his wife’s inheritance, it was in Grimsby that the young Yerburgh made his career as he waited to inherit his patrimony. His father held property there, for he contributed 16d. to the expenses of its MPs in 1450, and this connexion explains why William was, for a fine of 40s., admitted to the town’s freedom on 16 Oct. 1449.7 N.E. Lincs. Archs. Grimsby bor. recs. assessments for parlty. expenses 1/612/1 (formerly 1/800/1); ct. rolls 1/101, 28 Hen. VI. In 1440, when sued for a small debt by Richard Fulnetby*, he was styled ‘of Louth, chapman’: CP40/718, rot. 349d. He quickly established himself there. If a later indictment is to be believed he was one of the prominent men of the town, along with Hugh Edon* and John Dene*, who on 10 June 1450 harboured two local mariners who had assaulted a merchant of Lübeck at Boston and despoiled his ship of cloth worth £500.8 KB9/65A/7. Yerburgh’s involvement in this incident may have been the reason why, together with Dene, he successfully sought election for the borough to the Parliament of the following November. For both men it was the only Parliament in which they sat. A particular desire to sit in this assembly on Yerburgh’s part may also be reflected in his attestation of the county election of 5 Oct. 1450, the only election he is recorded as attending. However this may be, it was not until the autumn of 1452, when a powerful oyer and terminer commission came to the county, that he was indicted for his alleged piracy offence, and on 8 Nov., only two weeks after the indictment, he was able to sue out a general pardon.9 Ibid; Lincs. Archit. and Arch. Soc. i. 75; C67/40, m. 5.

Later Yerburgh’s connexion with Grimsby lessened, perhaps because he had come into his patrimony. When, on 1 July 1455, he stood once more as a parliamentary candidate for the borough he polled only one vote, and although he contributed 6d. to the expenses of the borough’s representatives in the Parliament of 1459, he seems to have played no further part in the town’s affairs.10 Bull. IHR, xlii. 217; Grimsby bor. recs. 1/612/2. Instead he took the minor role in county affairs typical of the lesser gentry and developed a close connexion with the baronial family of Welles. In the mid 1440s the daughter and heiress of the Yerburgh’s lord, Lord Willoughby, had married Richard, son and heir-apparent of Lionel, Lord Welles. It was thus natural that, after Willoughby’s death in 1452, our MP should have entered the service of the Welles family, a transfer of allegiance which was to have adverse consequences for him in 1470. The first evidence of his association with the Welles family dates from June 1456 when, along with John Newport II*, he settled a manor near Louth, once held by Lord Willoughby, on Richard Welles and his wife, the Willoughby heiress.11 C140/4/33.

Despite his allegiance to the Lancastrian family of Welles, Yerburgh suffered no ill consequences as a result of the Yorkist usurpation. Indeed, by Michaelmas 1461 he was holding office as the King’s bailiff of the honour of Richmond soke of Gayton-le-Wold, but it is doubtful whether this is to be interpreted as a mark of royal favour. The Yerburghs were tenants of the soke and William’s father had held the same office in the early 1450s when the honour had been in the hands of Henry VI’s half-brother, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond (d.1456).12 DL29/639/10376, rot. 9; SC6/909/23, rot. 4. Their lands in Yarburgh and Grainthorpe were held of the soke: C142/70/34. William’s real political allegiance did not become apparent until the Lincolnshire rising of March 1470. It is probable that he had continued as bailiff of Gayton after the honour of Richmond had been granted to George, duke of Clarence, and this may partially explain his involvement in the rising. But a more important explanation is his long-standing association with the Welles family. In February 1468, for example, he was one of those who made a settlement in favour of Lionel, Lord Welles’s widow, Margaret, duchess of Somerset; and when Richard, Lord Welles, sacked the manor-house of Sir Thomas Burgh† at Gainsborough, probably in the autumn of 1469, he was implicated in the offence, suing out a pardon on the following 3 Mar. along with other Welles clients.13 CCR, 1461-8, pp. 464-5; C67/47, m. 8. For the contested dating of the raid on Gainsborough: J.S. Mackman, ‘Lincs. Gentry’ (York Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1999), 152-8. Immediately afterwards he was not surprisingly drawn into the rising inspired by Clarence and Richard, earl of Warwick, and led by Lord Welles’s son, Sir Robert. On 25 Apr. he was one of the many rebels the seizure of whose estates was ordered by the King.14 CPR, 1467-77, p. 218. An intriguing reference in the Grimsby chamberlains’ acct. of 24 Oct. 1469 to 5 Oct. 1470 shows that, during this accounting period, 14d. was paid to a messenger for riding to our MP: Grimsby bor. recs. chamberlains’ accts. 1/600/17. Perhaps the burgesses sent to him for intelligence at the time of the Welles rising.

The Readeption of the following October marked a brief recovery of Yerburgh’s fortunes: in Hilary term 1471 he was suing pleas of account against his estate officials in the court of common bench. But his difficulties were soon renewed by Edward IV’s victorious return in the following spring. On 26 May a commission was issued for his arrest and those of other Lincolnshire supporters of the Readeption, such as John Truthall, Thomas Fitzwilliam II*, John Newport II and John Saynton†, and even though he was able to sue out a general pardon on 16 Apr. 1472 his involvement in the Welles rebellion cost him dear. In March 1473, with his son Richard, he entered into a bond in the large sum of 500 marks on condition that, within a month, he should make estate of all his lands to Sir William Hampton†, mayor of London, Sir William Taylor, and others, as security for the payment of £207 16s. in three instalments between May 1473 and February 1474. Clearly he had been forced to borrow on disadvantageous terms, presumably to pay for his pardon.15 CPR, 1467-77, pp. 285-6; CP40/838, rot. 11d; CCR, 1468-76, 1112.

To add to Yerburgh’s troubles, in Easter term 1473 a plea of account was sued against him in the common pleas by the duke of Clarence, but death soon rendered such actions nugatory. He was alive in the following January when, with other feoffees of the attainted Richard, Lord Welles, he made a settlement upon Welles’s daughter and heiress and her husband, Richard Hastings, Lord Welles, but he does not appear in the records thereafter.16 CP40/846, rot. 290; Lincs. AO, Ancaster mss, 2ANC3/A/23. He was succeeded by his son Richard who, perhaps due to his father’s troubles, played a less active role in local affairs. Much later the family moved to Snaith in Yorkshire and Sir Thomas Yerburgh†, a lineal descendant of our MP, represented Pontefract in the Parliaments of 1685 and 1689.17 The Commons 1660-90, iii. 785.