WELTDEN, Simon

The Weltdens were a well-established gentry family, long resident at Welton, a few miles to the west of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The career of this MP poses some problems of identification, but he was almost certainly the son of another Simon. The latter began his career serving in the late 1380s as butler in the household of Sir John Lilburn of West Lilburn (Northumberland) and went on to hold office as one of the county coroners.5 CIPM, xix. 347; CCR, 1408-13, p. 20. He also contracted an important marriage for our MP, who in the autumn of 1409 was married to Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Middleton and niece of Sir John Middleton*. The two families had long been connected and the match was designed to effect an exchange of property between them: the couple were to have a moiety of the manors of Thornbrough (in Aydon) and nearby Little Whittington, a few miles to the west of Newcastle, and in return the Middletons were to have the Weltdens’ share of the nearby manor of Belsay. This exchange served to consolidate the Middletons’ manor of Belsay and the Weltdens’ manor of Thornbrough.6 Hist. Northumb. x. 322.

Weltden was of age by May 1413, when, described as ‘junior’, he witnessed a deed alongside other Northumberland gentry, including Sir John Bertram* and William Mitford†. His putative father probably died soon afterwards, and he himself began to play a part in public affairs in April 1418, when he served as a juror at the Northumberland inquisition post mortem of Ralph, Lord Greystoke. In the following year he attested the county parliamentary election.7 CCR, 1413-19, p. 71; C138/33/37; C219/12/3.

The marriage Weltden contracted for his young son and heir, Thomas, on 4 Jan. 1424 indicates that he was a man of greater standing and wider connexion that he comparatively few references to him indicate. The bride was Margaret, daughter of the prominent Lancashire lawyer, William Gernet*. The match was almost certainly brokered by Simon’s putative brother, Richard Weltden, who was named as one of the feoffees for the settlement of a moiety of the manor of Thornbrough in jointure on the couple. Richard was a prominent lawyer with connexions to the Neville family, and had probably come to know Gernet through their mutual interests at Westminster. The wedding was to take place before Midsummer’s Day 1424 and Gernet was to pay Simon £40 over the next three years as his daughter’s portion. Simon also took out a lease of the other half of the manor of Thornbrough to the use of the newly-wed couple, as well as guaranteeing that he ‘standes in swilk estat of all the landes þat was his fadir’ and promising to make no further alienations of the Weltden estate.8 Hist. Northumb. x. 323-4.

At this date, or soon after, Weltden, like his father before him, was one of the county coroners, but it was the town of Newcastle that was the main focus of his career. He quickly established himself as one of the leading townsmen. On 31 Jan. 1426 he was elected to represent Newcastle in Parliament; and at Michaelmas 1428 he was elected sheriff. Later, in January 1437 he was one of the aldermen who deliberated upon new regulations for the annual Corpus Christi procession before serving another term as sheriff in 1442-3.9 C219/13/4; Welford, i. 306; Newcastle-upon-Tyne ed. J.J. Anderson (Recs. Early Eng. Drama, xliv), 3-4. More significantly, in November 1439 he was appointed as controller of customs and subsidies there, and the administration of the customs, first as controller and then as collector, was to occupy him for the rest of his life. Indeed, at his death late in 1450, he was serving a second term as controller, an office in which, on 19 Nov. that year his son Thomas replaced him.10 CPR, 1446-52, p. 404. According to the enrolled customs accounts, Thomas took over before 22 Dec. 1450: E356/19, rot. 41d. In the following year his widow Alice, who must have been his second wife, appeared before the subsidy commissioners to certify that he had held property worth £6 p.a. in the town.11 E179/158/54, rot. 3.

As well as his property in Newcastle, Weltden held by knight service the manors of Thornbrough (from Sir Robert Umfraville) and Welton (part of the prior of Tynemouth’s liberty) and was duly assessed upon them towards the parliamentary subsidy in 1428.12 Feudal Aids, iv. 80-81.