CHURCH, John I

More can be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 574-5.

At the outset of his career, Church married the widow of Henry Beeby, who, between 1385 and 1395, was mayor of Leicester and its MP on three occasions each.3 CP40/555, rot. 158.

In October 1429 Church was one of six prominent townsmen, including John Loughborough* and Thomas Waldegrave*, chosen to arbitrate a dispute over a significant estate in the town between Ralph Brasier alias Humberston* and Thomas Gaddesby. In the subsidy returns of 1435-6 he was assessed at an annual income of £5. Part of this income was derived from two shops in the Ironmonger Row which he held of the duchy of Lancaster at a rent of 1s. 9d.4 CP40/682, rot. 319; E179/192/59; DL29/198/3129, m. 1d. There is nothing to suggest that he had significant property outside his native town. The earlier biography is in error in claiming that he owned a share in the manor of Swithland, a few miles north of Leicester. His interest there was as a feoffee of a local esquire, Thomas Assheton, and it was as such that, on 2 June 1435, he and his fellow feoffees resettled the property on Assheton for life with remainder over to John Danvers in tail. It is significant in this context that William Bispham†, who had sat with Church for Leicester in the Parliament of 1399, had been the husband of the heiress of this manor, and this is the likely origin of Church’s involvement.5 CP25(1)/126/74/20; Leics. RO, Swithlands chs. DE1625/4.

Church was alive as late as 1446, when he was a plaintiff as one of the executors of a baron of the Exchequer, William Babthorp, whose wife held the manor of Aylestone near Leicester.6 CP40/740, rot. 428. But both he and his son were dead by July 1452, when his last surviving feoffee, Thomas Charity*, made an important conveyance. He conveyed to Katherine, Church’s grand-daughter and heiress, in fee tail all the family’s lands in the town and suburbs of Leicester, with remainder over to the mayor and community to find a chaplain to celebrate divine service in the church of St. Martin for the souls of the Churches and others, including his wife’s first husband, Henry Beeby.7 Leics. RO, Leicester bor. recs., deeds BRII/8a/241, calendared in Leicester Bor. Recs. ii. 424.