ALEXANDER, William

More can be said about this able lawyer’s relations with the city of Salisbury, where he made his home, than was mentioned in the earlier biography.5 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 23-24. He was giving the mayor and commonalty advice as early in his career as 1401, then receiving 13s. 4d. for advising about the tenure of George’s Inn and the citizens’ current disputes with the dean and chapter of Salisbury cathedral.6 First General Entry Bk. no. 37. By 1413-14 he was in receipt of the city’s livery, worth 12s. 6d. a year, and on 2 Nov. 1417 he was formally retained as its attorney, in return for the same wages as ‘in earlier years’. For the rest of his days he was regularly paid fees as a counsellor to the mayor, in 1419-20 these amounting to £2. Confirmation that he should continue to be retained by Salisbury was made by the council of 24 on 29 Nov. 1423, during his first Parliament as a representative of the city. Clearly, his advice on matters of law was highly valued. Towards the end of his life his robes cost £1 0s. 9d. a year, and his annual stipend rose to £5.7 Ibid. nos. 135, 185, 203, 217, 237, 246, 261, 274, 310, 372, 393; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Salisbury acct. rolls, G23/1/44, no. 1. The mayor could always call on him when there were difficult issues needing resolution. For instance, he was asked to negotiate with Robert Long*, the bishop of Salisbury’s bailiff, with regard to the conduct of pleas heard in the city.8 First General Entry Bk. no. 281.

Throughout this period Alexander served as a member of the council of 24, having been elected to that body in 1419, and over the years he often attended civic assemblies.9 Ibid. nos. 211, 257, 258, 266, 272, 289, 294, 300, 302, 325, 329, 389, 396. Among these were the convocations of October 1422 and June 1433 at which Salisbury’s MPs were chosen.10 Ibid. nos. 231, 289. Of his own parliamentary service, it is recorded that he and Walter Shirley* were each paid £11 6s. as their wages in the Parliament of 1423 (when they served for 113 days); that he and Henry Man* received £8 each for 80 days’ service in the Parliament of 1425; he and William Pakyn* each had £7 6s. for the 73 days they spent at the Parliament of 1431; and he and Thomas Freeman* were each paid £7 4s. for spending 72 days at the Parliament of 1432.11 Ibid. nos. 242, 245, 248, 277, 284. As one of the leading citizens Alexander was expected to contribute towards the loans Salisbury made to the Crown, and he proffered sums ranging from 10s. to £1 for each levy, as well as one mark towards the force of men-at-arms and archers sent for the relief of Calais in 1436.12 Ibid. nos. 213, 273, 297, 321A, 391. Among the tasks he was given to do at Westminster was to obtain surety for repayment of sums loaned, as well as tallies at the Exchequer.13 Ibid. nos. 276, 276A.

Of his work for others there are further snippets of information. He was an executor and beneficiary under the will of George Meriot esquire in 1410,14 Salisbury Domesday bk. 1, G23/1/213, ff. 89v-90v. retained by Winchester College as an attorney at the assizes in 1413, and asked to be a feoffee by John Giles*, the clerk of the peace for Wiltshire, who sat with him in the Commons in at least four Parliaments.15 T.F. Kirby, Annals of Winchester, 160; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Wilton deeds G25/1/210. Despite all the evidence of his expertise in the law, it remains open to speculation that he was the ‘Alisaundre’ admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1423.16 Lincoln’s Inn, Black bk. 1, ff. 13, 24.

Alexander sometimes went to the court of common pleas in person to bring suits against his debtors and those of Henry Thorpe† of Boscombe, for whom he acted as an executor.17 CP40/647, rot. 132d; 669, rots. 213, 411; 700, rot. 213; 721, rots. 172d, 173. Of his more private affairs, there are records of him serving as attorney at the Salisbury assizes for his first wife Edith, and joining her and her sisters as co-patrons of the living at Studland in Dorset which formed part of their inheritance. On his own he presented to the livings at Thornton in Dorset and Winterbourne Cherborough in Wiltshire.18 JUST1/1531, rot. 45; Reg. Hallum, nos. 242, 493, 495-6, 500, 620. Edith died before July 1440 when her heir, their son John Alexander, confirmed his father in possession of the manors of Thornton and Little Kington, Dorset, and the advowsons of Studland and Thornton chapel. John died before his father, and the latter’s brother and heir, another John, himself died childless before July 1466. By that date our MP’s heir was John Farley, a ‘gentleman’ living at Stockton in Wiltshire. He confirmed Alexander’s widow and her then husband Thomas Hussey I* in possession of the advowson of Studland.19 Salisbury Domesday bk. 3, G23/1/215, ff. 7-8. John the son was still living in Hil. term 1442: CP40/724, rot. 133d.