WINTERSHALL, Thomas

Thomas came from the branch of the Wintershall family which had been settled at Wintershall in Bramley since the early thirteenth century.2 VCH Surr. iii. 84-85. His father, John, had achieved a prominent position among the gentry of the shire, which he represented in at least six Parliaments, and John’s near continuous service as sheriff (four terms) escheator (six terms) and j.p. from 1404 until his death in 1433 attests both to his ability and to his commitment to the business of local administration. His role as deputy constable of Windsor castle for 20 years further enhanced his stature. Neither of John’s sons could match him. While probably still under age, Thomas appeared at the shire court at Guildford to attest the Surrey elections of 1423, and his younger brother Robert represented the county town in two Parliaments during their father’s lifetime. Before their father died the brothers had dealings in property on their own account. In 1430 they and others received from John Brantingham (nephew of the late Sir William Brantingham†) seisin of the Surrey manor of Catteshull, which in September 1432 Thomas quitclaimed to Robert. It looks, therefore, that this had been a purchase made on Robert’s behalf.3 Surr. Hist. Centre, Woking, Loseley mss, LM 339/45/2; 341/18, 19, 25; CPR, 1429-36, p. 62

By attesting the parliamentary indenture for Surrey on 3 June 1433, Thomas witnessed the elections of his father for the shire and his younger brother for Guildford. On his father’s death that November, before the close of the second session, he inherited the family estates.4 E149/155/14; C139/68/5. Thomas, then aged about 30, was called ‘of Wintershall, esquire’, when, in the following spring, he was required to take the oath against maintenance which the Parliament had imposed.5 CPR, 1429-36, p. 380. Besides the manor at Wintershall he inherited Frenches in Worplesdon and other family holdings, although some remained in the possession of his father’s widow, Elizabeth, as her dower.6 VCH Surr. iii. 85, 393. Thomas witnessed a transfer of property made by Robert Weston of Clapham to the latter’s stepfather John Founteyns* in July 1435, but apart from this there is little evidence of his social contacts, and his successful candidacy for election to Parliament later in the same year perhaps rested on his late father’s reputation. While the Parliament was in session, on 5 Nov., his stepmother made a formal gift of her goods and chattels in Surrey and Hampshire to him and his wife, Joan, who was Elizabeth’s own daughter; but whether the marriage had been contracted before John Wintershall’s death is not revealed. Among the witnesses to the deed was one of Thomas’s fellow MPs, Nicholas Bernard*, sitting for Hampshire. Also during the session, on 28 Nov. Wintershall witnessed the conveyance of the manor of Beddington in Surrey to its heir, Nicholas Carew*.7 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 37, 38, 45. Naturally, as one of the shire knights he was commissioned at the dissolution of the Parliament to distribute tax allowances in the county he had represented.

In November 1438 Wintershall was appointed escheator of Surrey and Sussex, only to die in office shortly before the following 27 Feb. His executors were instructed to deliver to John Bartelot* all the rolls and writs relating to the escheatorship so he could take over the task.8 CFR, xvii. 55, 75. Thomas died without issue, and his brother Robert succeeded to the family lands and to their father’s place in the society of Surrey.