CLIPSHAM, John

More can be added to the earlier biography.5 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 596-7.

There is ample indication of Clipsham’s attachment to Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, ranging from his service to Beaufort as constable of Farnham castle (for which he received an annual fee of £10), and as bailiff of the bishop’s liberties in Surrey and Sussex in the 1420s, to his appointment as deputy butler in Chichester by nomination of Beaufort’s kinsman, the influential Thomas Chaucer. He may well have lent his support to Chaucer during the latter’s Speakership of the Commons of May 1421. Clipsham was twice made sheriff of Surrey and Sussex while Beaufort was chancellor, in 1415 and 1424, and like other Beaufort retainers appointed sheriffs he was returned to the Parliament called to Leicester shortly after the end of his term in 1426.6 G.L. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort, 67, 145, 151. The Parliament witnessed a confrontation between the followers of Beaufort and those of his rival Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; Clipsham was clearly numbered among the former. While the Parliament was in progress, on 13 May, he was discharged 40 marks due on his shrieval account at the Exchequer, owing to the excessive costs he had suffered during his time in office.7 E159/202, brevia Trin. rot. 8.

In Easter term 1425 Clipsham had been attached to answer one John Hunt in the court of common pleas, regarding two bonds, each in £20, which had been entrusted to his safekeeping at Guildford earlier in the year. He questioned the alleged terms of the undertaking.8 CP40/657, rot. 430d. When he died, perhaps late in 1429, his financial affairs were in some disorder, with a large number of creditors owing him substantial sums of money. John Hipperon* and his fellow executors of Clipsham’s will brought several suits in the common pleas for recovery of debts owing to the deceased. For instance, in 1432 they were suing for sums amounting to over £52.9 CP40/686, rot. 93. Hipperon obtained a pardon on 26 June 1437 as executor of our MP, who had himself taken on the executorship of the former treasurer of England, William Kynwolmarsh. Presumably, Hipperon had been required to complete the administration of the latter’s estate after Clipsham’s death.10 C67/38, m. 19.