BURTON, Sir Thomas

Our MP’s social origins were more exalted than implied in the earlier biography.4 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 441-3. The late Mr. C.I.B. Cox generously provided material for the revision of this biography. His great-grandfather, Nicholas Burton† (d.1327), was a burgess of Stamford, but he was also the cadet of a gentry family established since the late twelfth century at Ingerthorpe in the West Riding. Nicholas’s marriage in about 1300 to the daughter and coheiress of Sir William Tolethorpe of Tolethorpe brought the family to Rutland.5 Feudal Aids, vi. 121; VCH Rutland, ii. 238-9.

The willingness of Sir Thomas’s long-lived mother to compromise her dower rights did something to alleviate the financial difficulties under which he laboured for much of his career. The tax returns of 1412 suggest that she held no lands in Rutland, but rather depended for her income on the lands of her first husband in Huntingdonshire, where she was assessed on an annual income of £16. This allowed our MP the unencumbered possession of the Burton patrimony, which, after his alienation in 1397 of the family’s manors in Berkshire, was largely confined to the county of Rutland. In the tax returns of 1412 his lands there were assessed at an annual value of £21. This made him one of the most substantial non-baronial lay landowners in the county despite his recent sale of two manors to Roger Flore*. Indeed, with the exception of several notable peers, only Flore at £23, Sir John Basings at 35 marks and Sir Henry Pleasington* at £25 were assessed at greater sums.6 Feudal Aids, vi. 463; E179/387/21. It is, however, worth noting that only in Rutland would an annual landed income as comparatively modest as £21 have placed a landholder among the county elite. This modest landed income highlights the importance to Burton of the substantial fees he received from his lord, Edward, duke of York, and provides some explanation for his financial problems. His lengthy military service cannot have been profitable and his estates were insufficient to support the burden placed upon them by the Crown’s failure to pay wages promptly.

Burton’s military career was even longer than suggested in the earlier biography. He may have served under Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, in the naval expeditions of 1387 and 1388, and he is certainly to be indentified with the knight who sailed to Aquitaine with Edward, earl of Rutland, in the autumn of 1401.7 E101/40/33, m. 17; 34, m. 4; C76/72, m. 7; C61/109, m. 13.

The biography in the previous volume mistakenly identifies Thomas Burton*, who represented the borough of Leicester in Parliament, as the son and heir of Sir Thomas. In fact, the latter’s heir served as sheriff of Rutland in 1438-9, but is not known to have ever sat in the Commons. On 6 Oct. 1438, less than two months after our MP’s death, his feoffees settled the manor of Tolethorpe and other Burton lands on Thomas and his wife, Cecily Bussy, a conveyance probably made in implementation of a marriage contract drawn up in Sir Thomas’s lifetime.8 Blore, 217.