GREYNDORE, Robert

More may be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 246-7.

There are earlier references to this MP than previously realized, for a deed of 1393 records that in May that year John Walker of Newland conveyed to John Elone a plot of land in Staunton, Gloucestershire, lying next to property that Greyndore held in the same parish. In March 1403 and September 1409 Greyndore witnessed deeds relating to similar small scale property transactions in the same part of the county.4 Hall and Gage deeds, D1677/GG/129, 144, 156.

The previous biography of Greyndore records that he was steward and constable of the Forest of Dean and St. Briavels castle in the mid 1430s while failing to notice that he also held those offices as early as 1414. It is not however clear whether he served continuously in those positions from the reign of Henry V. Furthermore, he was steward of Tidenham in the late 1420s, before he was associated with Stephen Haytfeld in the joint stewardship of Tidenham and Chepstow.

Following the death of his noble patron, Thomas, Lord Berkeley, in 1417, Greyndore was caught up in the controversy over that peer’s estates. He was among those Berkeley men who resisted the claims of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, who had married Berkeley’s daughter, Elizabeth, sole heir to the Lisle barony and also to her father’s un-entailed lands, prompting Warwick to take legal action against them in the latter part of Henry V’s reign and the beginning of that of Henry VI.5 A.F.J. Sinclair, ‘Beauchamp Earls of Warwick’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1988), 278-9; CP40/632, rot. 90.

As the previous biography observed, it is not altogether surprising that an office-holder and resident of the Welsh marches of Greyndore’s standing should occasionally face accusations of abuse of power and maintenance. Apart from the cases previously mentioned, he was also complained about in a petition submitted to Parliament, apparently that of 1420, of which he himself was a Member. The petitioners were William Schirburn, a London goldsmith, and his wife Elizabeth, formerly the wife of Thomas atte Mill of Gloucestershire. According to their petition, she possessed a tenancy in certain lands and tenements at Mitcheldean by virtue of her previous marriage. The Schirburns claimed that in October 1417 one Hugh Cromale had seized these holdings and various goods and chattels belonging to Elizabeth that he had found there; and that they could gain no justice because of the maintenance that he was receiving from Greyndore.6 SC8/141/7029.

In the mid 1420s Greyndore had dealings with one Henry Bray of Fownhope, Herefordshire, from whom in May 1425 he received a statute staple for £100, although in what circumstances is unknown. He subsequently sued Bray for failing to pay him that sum by the following 1 Aug.7 C241/219/55.

In November 1438 Greyndore received a deed of quitclaim from Sibyl, widow of Nicholas Huyde, of all the lands in Ruardean and elsewhere in the Forest of Dean that she had inherited from her father, Thomas Hathewey. Evidently Sibyl was one of his maternal relatives but the exact relationship is unknown. She referred to Greyndore as her ‘brother’ in the deed, although it appears most likely that they were cousins.8 Herefs. RO, Hill Court estate recs., F8/II/32.