ERDESWYK, Hugh

More can be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 29-32.

According to a tradition preserved by the Tudor antiquary, John Leland, the four daughters and coheirs of Sir Ralph Meynell, one of whom married Erdeswyk, divided a very considerable estate: ‘evrey one of them had a 100 markes by yere and a manor place’.4 J. Leland, Itin. ed. Toulmin Smith, ii. 14. This was clearly an overestimate, but the marriage made a significant enough contribution to our MP’s resources to explain, at least in part, why he played a more prominent part in local affairs than his forebears. It was also the context for his election to represent Derbyshire (a county in which his family had previously held no land) in the Parliament of 1419, for her principal property, the manor of Langley Meynell, came to him. This election provides the latest date for the making of the marriage, but it probably took place sometime before. Her first husband, one of the many sons of Sir William Dethick (d.c.1409) of Dethick (Derbyshire), was almost certainly dead by the autumn of 1408.5 Derbys. Chs. ed. Jeayes, 1929-30. Since she had only a daughter by her first husband, her lands promised a long-term addition to the Erdeswyk patrimony, but that promise was not realized for she was to die without living issue by our MP.6 The couple had abandoned hope of issue by 1439 when her manors of Kingsley (Staffs.) and Langley Meynell were settled on them for lives with remainder in tail to her daughter Margaret, and Margaret’s husband Ralph Basset of Blore (Staffs.): Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xi. 245.

There is little to add to the narrative of Erdeswyk’s career in the earlier biography. He was, despite the violent beginnings of that career, one of the most important gentry of the Midlands, not least because of his close association with Humphrey Stafford, earl of Stafford and duke of Buckingham.7 Our MP’s fa. had been a servant of the earl’s gdfa. Earl Hugh: C76/62, m. 14. As such, he had connexions with leading gentry outside his native Staffordshire. In 1435, for example, he was named as a feoffee by Robert Arderne* alongside other prominent Midlands gentry, such as Sir Richard Vernon*, Sir William Mountfort* and (Sir) Humphrey Stafford I*.8 C139/153/21.

Late in his career Erdeswyk found himself in an equivocal position in respect of a conveyance of the manor of Kibblestone, not far from his home at Sandon. This manor was in dispute between his friend, Sir Richard Vernon, and Sir William Trussell† of Elmesthorpe (Leicestershire). Trussell had right on his side, but Erdeswyk must have favoured the former, not least because, some years earlier, Vernon had granted him an annuity of £10 assigned on the manor. He could not, however, indulge that preference, because it contradicted his duty to the duke of Buckingham, whose local steward he was, nor could he stand aside. In August 1449 the beleaguered Trussell had mortgaged the manor to one of the few local gentry who could match Vernon in wealth and connexion, (Sir) Humphrey Stafford I. The trustees for this mortgage, presumably as the nominees of Stafford, were four of the duke’s adherents, one of whom was our MP. Clearly the duke approved of the arrangement, and after Trussell had defaulted on payment and Sir Humphrey had fallen fighting the Cade rebels he purchased the manor from Humphrey Stafford II*. On 25 Sept. 1450 Erdeswyk and the other feoffees undertook to convey the manor to the duke on request, perhaps at the cost of our MP’s long friendship with Vernon.9 Add. Ch. 73365. Curiously, however, the sale never took effect and the Vernons were able to establish their title to Kibblestone.

Erdeswyk was succeeded at Sandon by his nephew and namesake, son of his brother Henry.10 Staffs. RO, Hand, Morgan and Own mss, D1798/685/291. Henry’s descendant, Sampson Erdeswick (d.1603), was the author of an early county history, ‘A View of Staffordshire’. Sampson’s son, Richard† (d.1640), represented Staffordshire in the Parliament of 1625, but debt forced him to sell Sandon and the family failed in the main male line in 1654.11 English County Histories ed. Currie and Lewis, 355-6; The Commons 1604-29, ii. 200-2.