WROUGHTON, John

The family of Wroughton or Worfton had been settled at Broad Hinton since 1365, and had held the Wiltshire manor of Woodhill in Clyffe Pypard since 1381.5 VCH Wilts. ix. 32; xii. 109. Our MP’s grandfather, William†, who died four years after representing Wiltshire in Parliament in 1404, left his patrimony in the county and estates in Devon and Gloucestershire, valued at over £90 p.a., to his young son John, and to this inheritance was later added that of William’s widow Margaret Beaupyne, who died in 1420.6 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 899-900 (as Worfton); Vis. Wilts. (Harl. Soc. cv), 219; CIPM, xix. 616-21; xxi. 436-9. Margaret’s inheritance was not released to her Wroughton descendants until the death in 1430 of her second husband, Sir John Blaket†. John crossed to France in the retinue of Sir Walter Hungerford† in 1423,7 DKR, xlviii. 225-6. but died while still in his twenties just six years later. Although he asked to be buried in the church at Broad Hinton, his will, dated 8 Apr. 1429, was composed at Stonor in Oxfordshire, the home of his brother-in-law Thomas Stonor, named as executor with the testator’s wife Isabel.8 Reg. Chichele, ii. 407-8. Juries at the inquisitions post mortem held subsequently offered little information about the affairs of the deceased, save that his son and heir, John, the future MP, was aged only six. In Devon, however, it was recorded that Wroughton had held the manor of Woodhouse and the free borough of West Alvington, which he had demised to Thomas Gille I* for life in return for a yearly payment of £26, and a detailed extent of his whole estate, compiled at the same time, shows that the rental income from his landed holdings amounted to just over £191. Out of this sum the widow was to receive £80 6s. 8d. from her jointure lands and in addition dower worth £27 8s.; and her brothers-in-law Edward and William Wroughton were to keep the manor of Bawdrip, worth £26 13s. 4d. a year, during the heir’s minority. Various other family properties were held by feoffees, while the manor of Washford and Idson was to remain in the hands of Thomas Chaucer*, John Golafre* and John Hampden (the heir’s uncle), together with John’s wardship and marriage, in accordance with a grant made by the abbot of Cleeve as chief lord of the manor. Another manor, Beversbrook, and certain lands worth £18 were currently subject to litigation.9 CIPM, xxiii. 171-5, 318. The widowed Isabel Wroughton was supported by her brother Hampden and half-brother Stonor in negotiations over her endowment, and ties between them and the heir stayed remarkably strong throughout their lives. Isabel took as her second husband Thomas Ramsey* of Hitcham (Buckinghamshire), and lived on some 16 years after Ramsey’s death in 1448. As a consequence, Wroughton was kept out of his full inheritance until he was over 40. In a statement to his fellow commissioners required to assess the tax of 1450, he declared that his income from land in Wiltshire amounted to no more than £30 p.a.10 E179/196/118.

It was presumably John’s guardians who arranged his first marriage, to Jane Darell, whose father William had been under treasurer of England. The marriage may have been contracted before March 1438 when the disputed Wroughton manor of Beversbrook was conveyed to William Darell by Thomas Cricklade*.11 CAD, i. C1011. John was probably still a minor, aged about 17, when the question of patronage of the church at Bawdrip came for consideration before Bishop Stafford of Bath and Wells in June 1440. Cricklade and others presented a priest called Thomas Bretton, but the bishop, having ordered a search of past registers and found no evidence that they had ever been patrons of the church before, ordered an inquiry. The commissioners called Darell and William Stafford* to testify, and jurors found that the advowson belonged to Wroughton; his nominee was duly instituted.12 Reg. Stafford, ii (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxii), 252-3.

Wroughton came of age before January 1449, when he attested the Wiltshire elections to Parliament,13 C219/15/6. and he was appointed to his first two commissions of royal administration in the following year. This was a time of widespread revolts and Wroughton’s home county was particularly affected by popular uprisings, leading to the murder of the bishop of Salisbury. His precise reason for purchasing a royal pardon in June 1452 cannot now be ascertained, although the previous months had seen him summoned to King’s bench along with his brother-in-law Richard Darell of Littlecote and Thomas Winslow I* of Ramsbury to answer a plea of trespass brought by the queen, Margaret of Anjou.14 C67/40, m. 30; KB27/762, rot. 72, rex rot. 32d; 763, rex rot. 19. At the time of his return as a shire knight to the Commons of 1455 he had acquired only a modicum of experience in local government, and there are few pointers to explain why he was elected. Although he had remained in contact with the Darell family his influential father-in-law was now dead,15 CCR, 1454-61, p. 55. and there is no sign that he had established noticeably close links with any of the other leading gentry of the county. Nor, it seems, should particular significance be attached to the use of the seal of James Butler, earl of Wiltshire and treasurer of England, to authenticate a deed of 1458 whereby a quitclaim was made to Wroughton of the manor of Bawdrip.16 CCR, 1454-61, p. 348. It is very unlikely that Wroughton belonged to the affinity of the earl, a strong supporter of the house of Lancaster, for after a single commission in 1457 he took no further part in Crown administration under Henry VI.

Wroughton was distrained to take up knighthood in 1458 and 1465, but declined to do so, on the latter occasion being fined five marks for his recalcitrance.17 E405/42, rot. 1d. After the accession of Edward IV he continued to have close dealings with his relations the Stonors, for instance becoming involved in arbitration over the manor of Ermington in Devon, by lending his support to Thomas Stonor’s widow Alice, then the wife of Richard Drayton*. The Stonors put their trust in him, and for many years he was a feoffee of the Hampshire manor of Penton Mewsey, holding it to the use successively of Thomas Stonor II* (d.1474), the latter’s widow Joan (d.1494), and their son Sir William† (d.1494). When Sir William died Wroughton alone (probably as sole surviving feoffee) was in possession of his estates in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.18 C47/37/22/32; C140/29/48; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 973, 1016, 1030-1; CAD, i. C124. Commissions of gaol delivery and appointment to the Wiltshire bench in the 1460s indicate that Edward IV’s government considered him reliable, yet when Warwick and Clarence restored Henry VI to his throne Wroughton continued to be selected for commissions of the peace, and it may be that he went so far as to take up arms against Edward on his return to England in the spring of 1471: later that year he purchased a general pardon for all offences committed by him prior to 26 July.19 CPR, 1467-77, p. 278. Furthermore, now removed from the bench, he was not to be reinstated while the Yorkists retained the crown. Even so, Wroughton prudently held back from taking the extreme political stance of his kinsman Sir William Stonor, who was attainted for rebellion against Richard III. On 20 Nov. 1484 he, his wife and their eldest son Thomas obtained a pardon from the King, although as this specifically identified them as tenants of the manor of Fold and of land in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, it may be that their reasons for doing so had nothing to do with the recent turmoil.20 C67/52, m. 15. Indeed, in the following month Wroughton received with John Mordaunt†, John Newburgh† and others a royal grant of manors in Dorset confiscated from another rebel, (Sir) Nicholas Latimer*.21 CPR, 1476-85, p. 527. No doubt Wroughton’s ties with his cousin Thomas Hampden, who died at Bosworth on the side of Henry Tudor,22 Testamenta Vetusta, ii. 387; CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 614, 616. and with Stonor, whom Henry restored to his estates and former position, eased his own rehabilitation when the regime changed in 1485. He took back his old role as a j.p. and in Henry VII’s second year he was appointed sheriff.

Meanwhile, Wroughton’s personal standing and income had been enhanced by his second marriage, to Margaret Carent. This probably took place round about July 1469 when his father-in-law John Carent was among the feoffees for the settlement of Wroughton’s property in Devon on him and his wife in tail-male.23 Som. Archs. Walker-Heneage mss, DD\WHb/2474; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 52. Margaret’s attraction lay not so much in being Carent’s coheir, but in her status as the widow of John Filoll, the wealthy Dorset esquire who had died two years earlier. Filoll had stipulated in his will that if she remained single she could have 50 marks a year as well as her jointure (worth over £55) and dower; otherwise only lands worth 40 marks a year, yet as she and her father were Filoll’s only executors they were in a strong position to manage the estate to Margaret’s advantage and ignore Filoll’s stipulation.24 PCC 21 Godyn (PROB11/5, f. 163); C140/25/38; 42/56. Wroughton assisted her and Carent in the execution of Filoll’s will, by bringing suits against his debtors.25 CP40/844, rot. 490d; CPR, 1476-85, p. 83. The nine children Margaret had borne Filoll were all still minors when he died, but as they reached maturity they challenged her right to have control over their inheritances; accordingly, her relations with them often proved fractious. The mediation not only of their friends but of no less a person than the chancellor of England was required before the Wroughtons reached an agreement over a landed settlement with Margaret’s eldest son, William Filoll, and even though they relinquished eight Dorset manors to the young man, they had to bring an action in Chancery to recover from him deeds, evidences, goods and jewels which had been awarded to them.26 C1/178/1; C4/23/55; 43/67; 67/95. Similarly, after the younger Filoll children attained their majorities there erupted a flurry of lawsuits over the lands bequeathed to them by their father. Katherine Filoll sued her stepfather Wroughton to secure Filoll’s legacies for her marriage, and a few years after Wroughton’s death her brother Reynold took their mother to court for refusal to hand over his share of lands in Dorset, Hampshire and Essex worth £50 p.a. and his portion of Filoll’s moveable goods, which he said were worth as much as £2,100. Reynold asserted that Margaret had unjustly kept the issues of the lands after 200 marks had been raised for the marriages of her Filoll daughters, enjoying the profits for over 24 years.27 C1/80/30; 248/57.

Besides what wealth Margaret brought to Wroughton from the estate of her former husband, she also presented him with her Carent inheritance. Her father had settled on her and Filoll his manor of Kyngeston by Byre in Dorset, and when he died in 1478 she also inherited those of Todber and Knightstreet, subject to the life-interest of her stepmother.28 C140/65/5; C1/505/60-67; J. Hutchins, Dorset, iv. 112-13, 314-15. In addition, Margaret shared with the wives of John Percy† and Tristram Dillington† a reversionary interest in the Dorset manors of Hampreston, Long Kirchill and Farnham, which led her and Wroughton to bring a suit in Chancery against a priest named William Savage for the detention of title deeds and for wasting their inheritance by selling timber.29 C1/220/13-14; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 251.

Before he married Margaret, Wroughton had set about arranging suitable matches for his children by his first wife, most notably a double marriage with the family of the judge Sir Richard Chokke (d.1483): Wroughton’s son and heir Christopher was married to the judge’s daughter Jane, and before August 1468 his daughter Elizabeth was wedded to Chokke’s eldest son John.30 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 386, 897; Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xvi), 240; Som. Med. Wills 1501-30 (ibid. xix), 73. If such an alliance was indicative of Wroughton’s standing, so too was his nomination as a feoffee for a number of his fellow gentry of Wiltshire, such as the Mitchells of Marlborough, and his social contact with Richard Beauchamp, bishop of Salisbury, and William, earl of Arundel.31 CAD, ii. C1913; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Savernake Estate mss, 9/19/716; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 498. A particularly amicable connexion was formed with Humphrey Forster†, who had married his cousin Alice Stonor, and in his final years Wroughton acted as a feoffee for Thomas Norris* (d.1489), who had sat with him long before in the Commons of 1455.32 CAD, i. C1639; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 413, 479; C1/100/55. While little is recorded about Wroughton’s financial affairs, he is known to have occasionally defaulted on repayment of his debts. Together with two gentlemen from Hampshire in November 1488 he entered a bond for 40 marks to Sir William Capell†, the London alderman, at the staple at Westminster, but as he failed to pay Capell back on the appointed day in May 1490 an order went out for his arrest.33 CCR, 1485-1500, no. 486.

Besides this, Wroughton had other affairs to settle as he neared the end of his life. In 1491 he arranged that after his death and that of his second wife, his estates in Devon and Gloucestershire would pass in tail-male to their sons Thomas, Alexander and John.34 CP25(1)/294/79/18. In the interest of his eldest son, Christopher (the son of his first wife) he had several years earlier placed his holdings in Wiltshire and Somerset in the hands of trustees, including several of Christopher’s maternal relations, the Darells. But Christopher had to wait long for his inheritance: by the time his father eventually died (on 16 Aug. 1496) he had won his spurs at Stoke in 1487, represented Wiltshire in the Parliament of 1495 and was aged over 40. In 1497 Wroughton’s widow, Margaret, took out letters patent of pardon for any alienations of his estate made before the beginning of Henry VII’s reign.35 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 1152, 1216; ii. 52, 60. Sir Christopher received permission in October 1499 to enter all the lands his father had held to the use of the Stonors,36 CPR, 1494-1509, p. 191. and sued his stepmother in Chancery over detention of deeds relating to the Devon estate, which he claimed as his own (despite our MP’s settlements on his second family).37 C1/233/37; C4/53/57. She in turn started litigation against Thomas Bowryng, a lease-holder, regarding the same,38 C1/246/85; C4/23/148. and together with her son Jasper Filoll, as administrators of her late husband’s effects, she challenged Sir Christopher’s withholding of rents from her dower lands in Wiltshire and Somerset.39 C1/234/36; C4/92/75. In September 1501, probably in order to protect her property from the potential consequences of these lawsuits, Margaret placed her moveable goods in the hands of Doctor William Warham, then keeper of the rolls of Chancery and bishop-elect of London, and the judge Robert Rede.40 CCR, 1500-9, no. 173. The date of her death has not been discovered.41 She was not the Margaret Wroughton who died on 28 July 1520, for that Margaret’s son and heir was Richard Pole: E150/909/11.

Our MP’s great-grandson, Sir William Wroughton† (d.1559), carried on the family tradition by representing Wiltshire in Parliament (twice), although when two of his sons came to be elected to the Commons it was with the inferior status of parliamentary burgesses.42 The Commons 1509-58, iii. 668-9; 1558-1603, iii. 665-6. The family retained its seat at Broad Hinton until well into the seventeenth century.43 VCH Wilts. ix. 32; xii. 109.