AYSSHTON, Nicholas

As noted in the earlier biography,9 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 75.Aysshton’s early career is poorly documented, but appears not to have differed much from those of other young men of law, in that he served the wealthier members of the local gentry both at home and at Westminster in a variety of capacities. In 1420-1 the executors of Sir Otto Trevarthian paid him 6s. 8d. for an unspecified service (half the sum received by the somewhat more prominent lawyer Thomas Cokayn*, and just double what was paid to Cokayn’s clerk on the same occasion),10 SC6/823/35. and around the same time he occasionally appeared as an attorney or surety in the court of Chancery alongside fellow Cornishmen like Robert Treage* and John Cork*.11 C1/4/56, 93, 75/69. Within a decade, his practice had grown more extensive, and also took in the Westminster common law courts. Among his clients in this early period of his life were a number of the leading burgesses of Liskeard, which had first returned him to the Commons in 1421.12 KB27/677, rex rot. 3.

Although Aysshton’s home at Callington was slightly nearer to Liskeard than to Launceston, he increasingly began to play a part in the life of the latter borough, and it is an interesting reflection of how close he had become to the burgesses (at least in the eyes of the Westminster authorities) by the autumn of 1432, that he was omitted from a commission appointed to inquire into violent clashes between the burgesses and prior of Launceston on the one hand, and the servants of William, Lord Botreaux, on the other.13 CPR, 1429-36, p. 273.

Although by the early 1430s Aysshton had already begun to make a name for himself as a lawyer, the wages he received for his parliamentary service remained modest. Thus, in 1432 he and his fellow MP John Palmer* were between them paid just 13s. 4d. by the electorate of Launceston.14 Cornw. RO, Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/137, m. 1.

The multiple rewards in money and kind that Aysshton received nevertheless added up. In 1445-6, 1449-50 and 1459-60 he received gifts of wine from the burgesses of Launceston, and it is likely that he was given similar refreshment in other years for which the borough’s financial records do not survive.15 Ibid., B/Laus/138, f. 7; 139, m. 5; 141, m. 1d; 143, m. 1d. Rewards also poured in from other quarters. In the early part of Aysshton’s career the citizens of Exeter paid him for his services in cash, although in the judge’s later years they, too, presented him with gifts of wine,16 Devon RO, Exeter receivers’ accts. 16-17 Hen. VI, m. 2; 39 Hen. VI-1 Edw. IV, m. 2. while in 1434-5 and 1457-8 the bailiffs at Halton of Cecily, widow of John Hill I* of Spaxton, recorded payments to Aysshton totaling £17 2s.17 SC6/822/23, 24.

Even before his elevation to the common bench Aysshton’s professional abilities commanded considerable respect and even resentment in the south-west, as is evident from the bitter complaint to Chancellor Stafford of the Liskeard yeoman William Symond, one of the servants of John Holand, earl of Huntingdon, that John Colys* and Robert Joce* had been allowed to deprive him of a newly-acquired rent in Liskeard by means of a letter forged by our MP and his factotum, Robert Clay*.18 C1/39/158.

Like many other leading lawyers of his day, Aysshton was almost permanently itinerating between the Westminster courts and the regions, particularly the south-west, and his residence in Surrey. When the common bench was not sitting, he almost ceaselessly presided at the assizes, the sessions of the peace, and hearings of oyer and terminer, as well as carrying out a variety of royal commissions.19 E101/554/40, 42, mm. 2-3, 5-6; 589/2, m. 15; CP40/731, rot. 309; 749, rot. 129; 755, rot. 107; 774, rot. 124; 779, rot. 302; 783, rot. 317; 805, rot. 105, 313; KB9/254/68; KB27/724, rex rot. 24; 744, rex rot. 3; 746, rex rot. 28; 755, rex rot. 9; 778, rex rot. 4; 789, rex rot. 9; 806, rex rot. 2; 810, rot. 36. Although as a justice of one of the Westminster common law courts he should technically have been in attendance on the Lords when Parliament was in session, his busy schedule apparently did not always permit this, for on 10 July 1449 the King had to send special letters summoning Ayssheton into his presence at Winchester, where Parliament was then sitting.20 E28/78/132.

Despite his extensive duties in the Crown’s service, Aysshton throughout his life maintained close ties among the south-western gentry. A connexion with the important Dorset landowner William Stafford*, who made him one of his feoffees, survived Stafford himself and brought Aysshton into the circle of his widow, Katherine Chideock, and her second husband, John Arundell of Lanherne (whose grandfather had named our MP among his executors). The latter frequently called upon him to arbitrate in disputes with his neighbours.21 C140/32/30, mm. 4, 7, 8; 71/47; CP40/779, rot. 450d; Hants RO, Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C/493; Arundell mss, AR1/940-2, AR3/314, AR17/77, AR21/2. In March 1465 Aysshton attested letters of attorney for Henry Bodrugan, and he is frequently found serving other members of the Cornish gentry as a feoffee or arbiter of disputes.22 CP40/706, rot. 461; 761, rot. 227; C1/31/119; 47/253-4; 57/348; C4/3/22; KB27/735, rot. 89; Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME571; Lanivet parish recs., P110/25/1, 3. On account of his widely recognized status as one of the leading men of law in England, it was often major disputes that came his way. Thus, in July 1442 he joined with two fellow lawyers, Thomas Burgoyne* and John Markham, in settling a long-running quarrel between the hospital of St. Bartholomew, West Smithfield, outside the walls of London, and its sister foundation, the neighbouring Augustinian priory of the same name, while in August 1456 he and Chief Justice Fortescue* made their award in an acrimonious quarrel between the burgesses of Bodmin and their overlord, the local prior.23 CPL, xi. 608-15; E.A. Webb, Recs. St. Bartholomew’s Smithfield, i. 74, 78-79; KB27/788, rot. 88.

It was surprisingly rare for Aysshton to pursue quarrels of his own in the Westminster courts. Among the few documented examples are suits pending in the autumn of 1445 against one Richard Joye over the title to a house and plot of land in ‘Launcestonland’, and in the summer of 1448 against two Fowey yeomen accused of breaking into the judge’s house and carrying off his goods.24 CP40/739, rot. 105; KB27/749, rot. 6. The former property was evidently one that Aysshton had himself acquired. A rental of ‘Launcestonland’ drawn up in 1431 does not record any holding in his possession, suggesting that at the time of his two elections to Parliament for Dunheved that his claim to fulfil the statutory requirement for residency was at least shaky, but by 1463, when a new rental was compiled, he owned three tenements within Dunheved and Newport, a further tenement near ‘Hyghbrygge’, and a messuage and half an acre of land at Lake.25 LR2/191, f. 176; SC11/968.

On Aysshton’s death, his son Edward was admitted to the guild at Launceston, suggesting that the justice had also been a member.26 Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/156. There appears to have been some debate as to the date of the judge’s death. On 24 Oct. 1466 an inquiry was ordered, and a few days later a Southwark jury found that rather than dying on the day he had made his will, he had lingered on for a further two days and died on 12 Mar.27 C140/22/68.