ADAM, John

There is more to add to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 6-7. Adam’s marriage to Eleanor, coheiress of John, 5th Lord Northwode, involved him in a lengthy legal dispute with her kinsman John, son of James Northwode, the younger son of the 3rd lord, who was the closest male heir after the death of Eleanor’s brother in 1416. In Michaelmas term 1422, along with Henry Hickes*, who had recently married Eleanor’s older sister, Elizabeth, Adam was sued by John Northwode for close-breaking at the Northwode manor of Bredhurst. This action probably resulted from Adam assisting Hickes to take possession of part of his new wife’s inheritance.3 CP40/647, rot. 181; 648, rot. 82d. Although three years later it appeared that some compromise had been reached between the parties, as they acted together in suing Thomas Frank for close-breaking at Thurnham and Stockbury,4 CP40/658, rot. 459; 659, rots. 80d, 386. by 1437 the dispute had escalated. In Easter term 1439 Adam and Hickes again sued the Northwodes for entering their property at Bredhurst and Gillingham, but on this occasion the defendants had gained the support of an influential patron, Sir Roger Chamberlain*, who may have already been appointed lieutenant to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, at Queenborough castle.5 CP40/705, rot. 204; 713, rot. 236. Hickes continued to pursue the matter at common law after Adam’s death, in association with the MP’s widow, who by Michaelmas term 1441 had married John Colkirk.6 CP40/723, rot. 591; 724, rot. 114. Eleanor’s 2nd marriage is not mentioned in CP, ix. 758-9.