UGHTRED, Sir Robert

The Ughtred family can be traced back to the middle of the thirteenth century, when various members were prominent in the administration of Scarborough. Much of the family’s early prosperity was based on the lands which a distinguished cleric, Robert Ughtred (d.1291), dean of York, passed to his nephew, Sir Robert Ughtred† (d.1310).5 Yorks. Deeds, ii (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. l), 121; Reg. Abp. Romeyn, i (Surtees Soc. cxxiii), 224; Med. Scarborough ed. Crouch and Pearson, 43-45. This Sir Robert was appointed sheriff of Yorkshire in 1299 and sat for the county in the Parliament of October 1307, but it was his son, Sir Thomas†, who took the family to the height of its influence. Thomas served the Crown in both administration and warfare, supported Edward II against Thomas of Lancaster, and represented Yorkshire in three Parliaments between 1320 and 1332. Present at the battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332, he was granted substantial Scottish lands by Edward Balliol, and was keeper of Perth in 1339, when he was forced to surrender the town to the Scots. Switching his attention to the French wars, he fought at Crécy in 1346, and at the subsequent siege of Calais. His service to the Crown was rewarded with personal summonses to Parliament between 1344 and his death in 1365 (an honour never accorded to his descendants), and elevation to the knighthood of the Garter.6 CP, xii (2), 158-61; Oxf. DNB, ‘Ughtred, Thomas’. His son, another Sir Thomas† (d.1401), was twice MP for Yorkshire during his father’s lifetime, but never reached the same heights.7 He was one of the complainants in the famous case against the sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir Thomas Musgrave†, which led to Musgrave’s removal and disgrace, although the details suggest that Ughtred was far from an innocent party, having acknowledged responsibility for a series of highway robberies: Sel. Cases before King’s Council (Selden Soc. xxxv), pp. lxxxiii-lxxxix, 56; CPR, 1364-7, p. 319. As the younger Sir Thomas’s eldest son, William, predeceased him, he was succeeded by his grandson, yet another Thomas, the father of our MP. This Thomas, only 18 on his grandfather’s death, headed the family for only a decade, but he had at least been provided with what would, for his descendants, prove to be a very advantageous marriage, to Margaret, daughter of Sir John Godard. Godard’s own marriage, to Constance, widow of Peter, Lord Mauley, had greatly enriched him and his family, allowing him to purchase extensive lands in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, but the death of his grandson and heir in 1430 would eventually lead to the division of his estates between his daughters and their descendants, one of whom was our MP.8 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 194-6.

Robert’s father died shortly before 2 Dec. 1411, leaving Robert a boy of only around nine years old. Much of his early life is obscure, but an inquisition held into the alleged concealment of royal wardships on 9 Sept. 1412 found that his wardship and marriage belonged to Queen Joan, on the basis of a rent of 1d. in Thirsk held by his father from the Earl Marshal, and which Henry IV had since granted to his queen.9 CFR, xiii. 215; CIMisc. vii. 342. Whether he spent time in the queen’s wardship is not known. On his coming of age in about 1423, he inherited a relatively compact collection of manors, most of which lay within a few miles of the city of York: the family seat at Kexby, held of the earl of Westmorland, and the manors of Kilnwick Percy, Hook in Snaith, Scagglethorpe, Colton in Bolton Percy, Launde in Moor Monkton, and Towthorpe in Wharram Percy. Further afield, his inheritance included the manor of Coxwold in the North Riding, acquired by his father in 1405 on the death of Thomas Colville†.10 CFR, xiii. 23; C137/51/43. In the early 1460s, when our MP was seemingly held in disfavour by the Yorkist regime, John Percy of Kildale, as a distant cousin of the Colvilles, made a speculative and unsuccessful claim to the manor: C1/29/531. When he inherited them these lands may have been burdened by the dower and jointure interest of his mother, Margaret, but her interest, if such it was, proved only a brief inconvenience. She was certainly dead by May 1432 and may even have predeceased her husband.11 CFR, xvi. 91-2; CP, xii (2), 162.

Robert began his documented public career in March 1430, when he was first appointed as commissioner of array in the East Riding. Described in the appointment as a knight, he had almost certainly taken up knighthood only shortly beforehand, possibly in response to the distraint proclaimed on 26 Feb. He was still being described as ‘of Kexby, esquire’ in a plea of debt brought against him and others in common pleas in Easter term 1430, but was described as a knight when the case resumed in Michaelmas term 1432.12 CCR, 1429-35, p. 67; CP40/677, rot. 293d; 687, rot. 20. In March 1431 he was appointed to raise a loan in Yorkshire to fund Henry VI’s visit to France, but he himself appears to have taken no part in the coronation expedition. On 12 Jan. 1432 he was included among the jurors in an assize of novel disseisin brought between two of his more prominent neighbours, John, Lord Greystoke, and Sir Robert Waterton*, over a tenement in Fangfoss.13 CPR, 1429-36, p. 126; JUST4/8/3, m. 313. Shortly after this, aged around 30, he received his only election as shire knight for Yorkshire, alongside Sir William Normanvile*, another newcomer to Parliament.14 C219/14/3.

It was also around this time that Sir Robert’s material fortunes took an unexpected upward turn. His young cousin, John Godard, had died on 23 Aug. 1430, and on 12 May 1432 the escheators of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were ordered to arrange partition of the Godard estates. These comprised not only the lands of John’s father (Ughtred’s uncle John), but also the latter’s brother, Henry.15 CFR, xvi. 91-92; CIPM, xxiii. 433-4, 666. The process of formal division was delayed for reasons that are unclear. In Hilary term 1434 our MP was sued in the common pleas by his two aunts, Maud, wife of Robert Waddesley, and Agnes, widow of Sir Brian Stapleton†, for his unjust refusal to make a partition of the manors of Cranswick and Wassand, a third of the manor of Atwick and property in Lund, all in the East Riding. Such actions were often collusive, and, whether or not that was the case here, division was not made until 1437.16 CP40/692, rot. 179; 706, rot. 338. Ongoing difficulties over the inheritance are reflected in a special assize of novel disseisin sued out on 5 Nov. 1440 by the abbot of St. Mary’s, York, claiming tenements in Hornsea and Wassand in Holderness against Ughtred and the other Godard heirs, but no further details survive: C66/448, m. 28d. More property came his way in November 1438, when he was named as one of the six coheirs to part of the dower estates of Maud, daughter of Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, and widow of Peter, Lord Mauley (d.1415), the grandson of the first husband of Sir Robert’s own grandmother. These comprised lands of the latter’s Sutton inheritance: a third of the manor and castle of Bransholme, a third of the manor of Sutton-in-Holderness, and the advowsons of six chantries in Sutton church.17 CFR, xvii. 66-67; CIPM, xxv. 244-7; E152/10/533.

The new inheritance served to enhance Ughtred’s status, and this is reflected in his appointment in July 1435 to the East Riding bench. He retained that position until June 1440, when he transferred to that of the North Riding. This may possibly have reflected a move from Kexby to his North Riding manor of Coxwold, but he was generally still described as ‘of Kexby’, and continued to be appointed to other East Riding offices, particularly to the intermittent commissions of array. At the time of this change he was serving as escheator of Yorkshire, an unusual appointment for a knight, but he was soon to secure offices more appropriate to his rank.18 The schedule of his outstanding debts as escheator includes sums owed from the sale of parts of a whale taken on the beach near Muston in the E. Riding: E153/741. On 4 Nov. 1446 he was pricked as sheriff of Yorkshire and ex officio keeper of York castle, and during his shrieval term, on 14 June 1447, he was granted the post of constable of the castle for life, being then described as a ‘King’s knight’ and member of the royal household. No further details of his household service survive, but that service may explain why he was quickly reappointed to the shrievalty. He was nominated to the office again in December 1450 in the febrile environment occasioned by the duke of York’s return from Ireland.19 CFR, xviii. 57, 187; CPR, 1446-52, p. 53.

Two terms of office as sheriff in quick succession are likely to have placed a strain on Ughtred’s finances. A series of complaints made against him in the Exchequer of pleas at the end of his second term are suggestive here. On 8 Feb. 1452, Henry Percy, Lord Poynings, keeper of the East March and son and heir of the earl of Northumberland, complained that Ughtred had refused to honour tallies worth £60 payable out of the issues of the county of Yorkshire; and lesser sums were claimed against him in the same court by the keeper of the great wardrobe, William Cotton*, and Simon Reyham.20 E13/145A, rots. 60-61. The pardons of account granted to him – in £180 at the end of his first shrievalty and £240 at the end of his second, the standard sums then prevailing at the Exchequer in respect of the Yorkshire shrievalty – probably offered him only partial relief against these and other claims.21 E28/79/65; E159/229, brevia Hil. rot. 16d. His continuing financial difficulties may be reflected in the pardon granted him on 6 June 1458 as former sheriff and collector of the 1450 subsidy, which covered all trespasses, escapes of felons and other transgressions before the previous December, and of all debts and claims to debts prior to September 1454.22 E159/234, brevia Trin. rot. 20; 235, brevia Hil. rot. 8d.

Ughtred, for whatever reason, played a diminished role in local administration after his second shrievalty. He attested the parliamentary election of 1453, but it was not until 17 Dec. 1457 that he was again appointed to a royal commission, being among the assorted local notables ordered to assign archers in the various wapentakes of Yorkshire.23 C219/16/2; CPR, 1452-61, p. 408. More significantly, in Michaelmas term 1458, together with local magnates such as the earls of Salisbury and Northumberland and Viscount Beaumont, a number of knights and various churchmen, he was summoned to the King’s bench to answer ‘various articles’ to be put to them by royal commissioners, but there is no indication as to what these may have been. His political sympathies appear to have been with the house of Lancaster, for he was appointed to the Lancastrian commission of array in the North Riding in December 1459.24 KB27/790, rex rot. 53; CPR, 1452-61, p. 559. His complete exclusion from local administration under Edward IV strengthens this supposition, although there is no evidence that he took any active part in the warfare of 1459-61.

More evidence of Ughtred’s Lancastrian allegiance, either real or simply suspected, dates from 1468. On 19 Oct. 1468, at a time when plots to restore the Lancastrians were being uncovered, he saw fit to take out a general pardon, and it seems that he was at least suspected of involvement in the events surrounding the arrest shortly afterwards of a number of men including John de Vere, earl of Oxford. In a letter of the following 9 Dec. sent to Sir William Plumpton* referring to these events and the executions of various conspirators, Plumpton’s legal agent at Westminster reported that he had heard that Sir Robert Ughtred had been ‘sent for’, but opined ‘I trust to God it is not so’.25 Plumpton Letters (Cam. Soc. ser. 5, viii), 16. Whether he was indeed ‘sent for’ is unknown, but shortly afterwards, on 23 Feb. 1469 his wife, Joan, also took out a general pardon, as did Ralph Ughtred, ‘late of Kexby, esquire’, presumably the couple’s younger son.26 C67/46, m. 24; CPR, 1467-77, p. 133.

Whether Ughtred went on to support the Readeption does not appear, and he died on 9 July 1472 a year after Edward IV’s restoration.27 C140/42/47. Strangely for someone of his status, it would appear that he did not leave a will, as administration of his goods was granted three days later to his widow Joan and their son, George, a chaplain. Sir Robert was supposedly buried in the church of the Franciscan friary in York, and the tomb of someone of this name was certainly there in the sixteenth century, as was that of Sir Robert’s widow and another man described as ‘the son of Robert Ughtred’.28 Collectanea Topographia et Genealogica ed. Nichols, iv. 79. However, various other members of the fam. also requested burial in the friary church, including Robert’s eldest son, also Sir Robert, his yr. s. James and his gds. Henry: Yorks. Deeds, ii. 124, n. 1. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert (d.1487), and had at least five other children (four sons and a daughter, Anne). His final years were characterized by a series of property transactions conducted to provide for this large family, and detailed in his extensive inquisition post mortem, held at York castle on 31 Oct. 1472.29 E150/213/1; C140/42/47. When he died Sir Robert still held the manors of Kexby and Kilnwick Percy, but as early as 1455 he had transferred possession of Coxwold and part of the manor of Hook to his son Robert and the latter’s wife Katherine, daughter of Sir William Euer*, probably as part of their marriage settlement, and in 1467 he had granted the manor of Leppington and Barthorpe and various other properties near Hull to a group of feoffees headed by (Sir) Robert Constable* to the use of his wife, Joan. His younger sons were not forgotten: in 1459 he had granted lands in Atwick, Rolston and Foston in Holderness to his son Ralph, while in 1468 he gave a third of the manor of Wassand and land in Seaton to his son James and lands in Scarborough, Falsgrave and Beelby to his son Joseph, the latter two grants both involving yet another son, George, the cleric. However, these plans may not have been quite as straightforward as he may have hoped, since soon after his death his eldest son was forced to bring a suit in Chancery against the prior of Bridlington, seeking the return of Sir Robert’s muniments.30 C1/54/332. Sir Robert’s widow probably made her home in York, perhaps in her husband’s house in Fishergate, and was admitted to the York guild of Corpus Christi in 1473. She made her will on 14 June 1481, leaving all her goods to the two children not provided for by her husband, her son George and daughter Anne, and probate was granted to Anne on 9 Jan. 1489.31 Reg. Guild Corpus Christi, York (Surtees Soc. lvii), 86; York Bridgemasters’ Accts. ed. Stell (York Arch. Trust, 2003), 342; Yorks. Deeds, ii. 124, n. 1.