WYKE, John II

Although there are difficulties in reconstructing the biography of the MP for Lyme Regis, since the name of John Wyke or Wykes was a very common one in this period,9 Of these, among the most prominent was John Wykes, the esquire in the service of Richard, duke of York, and his son the earl of March. That John progressed in Edw. IV’s household from being an usher of the chamber to squire for the body, and stood in such high favour that the King acted as godfather to his son. As controller of mines in Cornw. and Devon and constable of Castle Rising, Norf., he received fees and annuities amounting to over £73: P.A. Johnson, Duke Richard of York, 88, 241; E361/6, rot. 56d; PROME, xiii. 170, 289-90; Household Edw. IV ed. Myers, 199, 263; CPR, 1446-52, p. 227; 1461-7, pp. 23, 123, 124; 1467-77, pp. 346, 437, 558; 1476-85, pp. 37, 72, 469; SC6/816/6, mm. 2, 6. The s. of John Wykes (d.1416), marshal of the marshalsea of the King’s bench, and still a minor in 1427, his inheritance included land near Newmarket, Cambs., and an estate in the Isle of Thanet, Kent: The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 922-3 (biog. of his kinsman Thomas Wykes†); CPR, 1429-36, pp. 109-10. a strong case may be made for identifying the MP with the son and heir of the long-lived Roger Wyke of Bindon. Roger, who had represented Plympton Erle in the first Parliament of Henry V’s reign and served as under sheriff of Devon in 1424-6,10 CP40/660, rot. 318; JUST1/1540, rot. 52d. was a younger son of the family settled at North Wyke in South Tawton. He established himself as a landowner in his home county of Devon by inheriting the estates of his mother Katherine Burnell, and in Somerset through his marriage to the heiress Joan Bingham. In 1448 Joan unexpectedly fell heir to a half-share of a much greater inheritance, comprised of manorial holdings spread over four counties which had once belonged to her grandfather, Sir Walter Romsey.11 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 919-20. Her coheir to these estates was her nephew William Horsey, who died that same year, leaving an under-age son, Thomas, and on 6 Apr. Joan’s son John Wyke (the future MP), joined the Dorset landowner John Filoll* in securing at the Exchequer the farm of the boy’s lands.12 C139/131/26; CFR, xviii. 86.

John was party to final concords of 1457 and 1461 in which his mother’s share of the former Romsey inheritance was listed as moieties of 15 manors, 26 messuages and annual rents of some £19 in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset,13 CP25(1)/294/74/1. and took a leading role in the prolonged litigation over her inheritance in the 1460s, particularly after her death (which occurred in the winter of 1462-3), even though he was not her principal heir – for this was Joan’s eldest son (the MP’s half-brother John Kayleway). He did, however, have an interest in remainder.14 VCH Hants, iv. 330, 459, 583; Collectanea Topographica et Geneaologica ed. Nichols, vi. 157. Joan died shortly bef. 16 Jan. 1463, when a writ de diem clausit extremum was issued: CFR, xx. 66. No post mortem survives. In July 1463 Wyke and his co-feoffees successfully brought an assize of novel disseisin at Winchester against another Joan, the wife of Thomas Swete, who claimed to be the true heir to the former Romsey estates, and were awarded damages of 1,500 marks against her; while at the same time the heir to the other moiety, Thomas Horsey, brought a similar action, and was awarded damages of £420.15 CP40/811, rots. 97d, 224. Yet despite these judgements Joan Swete continued to believe strongly in her case. She and her husband went so far as to enfeoff King Edward IV himself of the disputed manors, to hold to her use, and asserted that Wyke Horsey and Kayleway had wrongfully entered them by force. Furthermore, on 29 Sept. 1467 she obtained a grant from the King awarding her these estates for five years.16 CPR, 1467-77, p. 33; The Commons 1386-1421, iv, 919-20; Stonor Letters, i. pp. xlviii-lvi; C140/2/25. So far as John Wyke’s interest was concerned, an agreement made at Romsey just a week later gave him and his issue the right of remainder to the Horseys’ moiety of the inheritance to add to his remainder interest in his late mother’s portion.17 C140/62/46. John Kayleway may be the man of this name who died in Mar. 1468, leaving a son and heir named John, a minor. The post mortems in Dorset, Hants, Som. and Wilts. are all nil returns: C140/27/13. His share of the inheritance passed eventually to Sir William Kayleway (d.1505): CPR, 1494-1509, pp. 431, 577.

While these lawsuits over the former Romsey estates preoccupied Wyke in his later years, they had not affected the path of his career, which had begun long before. In 1440, in association with his parents, he had taken possession of a house in East Street, Bridport, which all three were to hold for term of their lives.18 C146/209. By then, his parents’ standing in the region had already ensured his marriage into one of the leading families of Dorset – that of Cammell – and his father-in-law, John Cammell, had settled on him and his wife the manor of Lattiford in Somerset and property in Exeter.19 Helyar mss, DD\WHh/926, 928-32; VCH Som. vii. 97. Since Cammell was also heir general to the Plecy family of Northamptonshire, his daughter and her husband Wyke were named in an entail of the manor of Burton Plecy in that county in 1449.20 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 470-1; CPR, 1446-52, p. 278. The Cammells looked to Wyke to assist them in their private affairs, so that he became a prime mover in arrangements for the marriage of his wife’s niece, Amy, to Thomas Gille II*, and assisted the couple to administer the estate of Amy’s former husband Henry Baret* of Wareham. Wyke was then living at Poyntington on the border of Somerset and Dorset,21 C1/29/74-77; CP40/758, rot. 46. but later held the manor and advowson of Charborough in east Dorset, which became his principal home. It has been suggested that this property came to him through his marriage to Joan Cammell, but this may not have been the case for his parents were patrons of the parish church in the 1450s and Wyke was able to make a settlement of it on his second wife.22 Hutchins, iii. 497, 502, 508 (an inaccurate account); CIPM Hen. VII, i. 474.

Although the MP needs to be distinguished from his cousin John, the son of Richard Wyke of North Wyke,23 Trans. Devon Assoc. xxxiv. 635-6; xxxv. 390-4. the significant events of his career are clear enough. He attested the Somerset elections to the Parliament of 1442, and having been made controller of customs in Exeter and Dartmouth the same year,24 C219/15/2; CPR, 1441-6, pp. 21, 149, 177. he went on to occupy a responsible position in the customs service there and along the coast at Poole intermittently over the course of 30 years. This marked a surprising course for a ‘gentleman’ and member of Lincoln’s Inn, although if he was the John Wykes (sic) who in September 1449 received royal letters of protection for himself and his men, he then had an undefined role to play in the administration of justice, in prosecuting the Crown’s interest in various courts around the country.25 CPR, 1446-52, p. 297. Wyke was appointed controller of customs in Poole in November 1454 but held office for a mere five months before his dismissal in May following. The Yorkist victory at St. Albans prompted the summons of a Parliament to meet on 9 July 1455, and to this Wyke gained election as a representative for Lyme Regis, situated not far along the south coast from the family home at Axmouth. His duties as a customs official would also have led to acquaintance with the inhabitants of the port. Before he set out for Westminster for the start of the second parliamentary session on 12 Nov., Wyke had very likely learned of the horrific murder on 23 Oct. of his aunt’s husband the prominent lawyer Nicholas Radford* at the couple’s home at Upcott – which ranks among the most notorious crimes of the century – and also of the incursions of the earl of Devon’s men into the city of Exeter. News of these serious events played a crucial part in the fresh appointment of the duke of York as Protector.

During this second session of the Parliament, Wyke was able to secure reappointment to his post at Poole, which he then occupied for more than three years. While in office, and described as ‘of Bindon, Devon, gentleman’, he took out a pardon.26 CPR, 1452-61, pp. 201, 202, 274, 459; C67/42, m. 27. During his term he brought a suit in Chancery against the authorities at Melcombe with regard to goods seized for customs payments due to the King: C1/26/575. Little may be deduced from further appointments and dismissals from office about Wyke’s political stance in the civil-war years; nor may much of significance be attached to the pardons he obtained from Edward IV in May 1462 and November 1468, except to note that he probably sought them to gain protection from prosecution for misdemeanours in the customs service.27 CFR, xx. 95-97; E122/119/2, 6, 7; C67/45, m. 20; 46, m. 14. In July 1464 the sheriff of Devon had been ordered to make distraint on his goods to ensure his appearance with his fellow customer Richard Hayne II* to render account at the Exchequer. Return came that he held nothing in the county by which he might be distrained, but as the barons were credibly informed that his lands at Bindon were worth £40 p.a. they promptly fined the sheriff £5 for misleading them. Although Wyke and Hayne had still not presented complete accounts by 1467, the former secured office again in 1470.28 E159/241, recorda Mich. rot. 3; 244, recorda Easter rot. 11.

At the end of that year Wyke was elected to the Commons for a second time, to sit in the Parliament summoned in the name of the restored Henry VI. No returns for this Parliament survive, and his presence there is only known from a petition directed to the chancellor by his servant Richard Dygon, who claimed the parliamentary privilege of freedom of arrest and imprisonment in actions of debt and trespass on the basis that his master, Wyke, was then an MP.29 C1/31/16. Presumably, as before, Wyke had been returned by the borough of Lyme Regis, as he was to be again in 1472. This Parliament ran to seven sessions and was not dissolved until March 1475. While an MP he was reappointed customer at Poole in October 1472,30 CFR, xxi. nos. 102, 104, 106. and was commissioned in July 1473 to go to Buckland abbey, evict the malefactors who had taken possession of the house, reinstate the abbot and arrest anyone opposing him. Following his retirement from the customs service that same month he obtained yet another royal pardon.31 C67/49, m. 6. Curiously, Wyke then saw no other employment by the Crown until after Henry Tudor seized the throne 12 years later. It may be assumed that he displayed overt support for the new King, for he was made a j.p. in Dorset as soon after Henry’s accession as November 1485, and remained on the bench until his death.

In his final years Wyke acquired and then disposed of land in Dorset, at Sturminster Marshall and Wimbourne Minster, and in June 1480 he and his second wife were pardoned for the acquisition from John, Lord Strange of Knockin, of the manor of Sturminster Marshall, which was held of the King in chief.32 CCR, 1468-76, no. 951; CPR, 1476-85, p. 202. Over a period of 30 years Wyke had been associated with the prominent local lawyer John Newburgh II*, for whom he acted as a feoffee (notably for a settlement of property on Newburgh’s grandson); and he is last recorded, in 1488, obtaining yet another royal pardon, which specifically referred to this undertaking.33 CCR, 1454-61, p. 395; Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x), 404; PROME, xv. 196-200; Add. Chs. 28918-19; C67/54, m. 3; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 38. Well advanced in years, he died on 20 Mar. 1489, leaving as his heir his son John, aged 46. The only property mentioned at his inquisition post mortem was the manor and advowson of Charborough, worth £10 p.a. and held of the abbot of Bindon. This he had settled on his wife Elizabeth, who survived him.34 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 473-4. A younger son, William (who died before 1518), inherited the former Cammell manor at Lattiford.35 VCH Som. vii. 97. The MP also left a daughter, Margery, whose marriage to the son and heir apparent of Walter Cheverell* he had arranged in 1463. Now the widow of John Cheverell (d.1485), she went on to marry Sir John Trenchard (d.1495) and finally (Sir) William Hody† (d.1524), the chief baron of the Exchequer.36 Helyar mss, DD\WHh/332; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 145, 1114.