HELTON, John

The identification of this MP poses serious difficulties, for there were four contemporary John Heltons, all living near Appleby: two of Helton Bacon, father and son, the latter of whom was active by the mid 1420s; another of Winton; and a fourth of Burton. The MP for Carlisle in 1427 was the first of these, for he is designated as ‘of Helton’ in the return.2 In view of the fact that his son, John, was already active as an attorney in the central courts (e.g. CP40/661, rot. 21d; 671, rots. 38, 278, 388d), the latter may have been the MP in 1427. There are, however, strong grounds for discounting this possibility. ‘John de Helton of Helton, junior’ appears among the attestors to the Westmld. election of 18 Sept. 1427, proving that his father was still alive and suggesting that, had he been the Carlisle MP, he would have been described as ‘junior’ in the Cumb. return: C219/13/5. While sitting as an MP, he pursued an action of trespass against a labourer for offences against his property at Helton, and he died not long afterwards. In Easter term 1430 his executors, among whom were his two sons, John and Thomas, were plaintiffs in several pleas of debt in the court of common pleas. It is likely that Isabel, ‘once wife of John Helton’, assessed at £5 p.a. in the Westmorland subsidy returns of 1435-6, was his widow.3 CP40/667, rot. 262d; 677, rots. 76, 98; E179/195/32.

The probability is that this John was also the Appleby MP of 1425. John Helton of Winton, who attested five Westmorland elections between 1426 and 1450, was a lesser man, the son of a yeoman; and it may be that John Helton of Burton was then dead, for he makes no certain appearance in the records after September 1417, when he witnessed a deed in company with John Helton of Helton.4 Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. n.s. lv. 173. Further, on 24 May 1425, while this Parliament was in session, John Helton of Helton, perhaps because he was then sitting as an MP, joined Robert Crakenthorpe* in offering surety in the court of King’s bench for Sir John Lancaster† and the executors of Sir Roland Thornburgh†.5 KB27/670, rot. 39. More debatable is the identity of the MP of 1411. In the earlier volume of the History of Parliament this MP (and also the Appleby MP of 1425) is identified as John Helton of Burton, who is also said to have represented Appleby and Carlisle in the late 1390s.6 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 345-6. In the returns for the Parls. of 1397 and 1399, the MP appears merely as ‘John Helton’: C219/9/12; 10/1. This identification depends on the assumption that the John Helton, active as an attorney in Westmorland and Cumberland in the 1390s and 1400s, was of Burton. It may be that he was: the probability that he was a useful local lawyer is attested by his appearance, in an undated account of about 1408, as the recipient of an annual fee of 26s. 8d. from either John, Lord Clifford, or Clifford’s mother, Elizabeth. The difficulty here, however, is that John Helton of Helton appears in the same account as a councillor of the Cliffords in receipt of an annual fee of 13s. 4d.7 V.J.C. Rees, ‘The Clifford Family’ (Lancaster Univ. M.Litt. thesis, 1973), 180-1. Both Heltons were tenants of the Cliffords in respect of Burton and Helton Bacon: Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. n.s. viii. 308-9. On this evidence, the two men were lawyers of equal standing, either of whom may have been the MP of the 1390s. The question cannot be resolved on the available evidence, although it is probable that it was John Helton of Helton who was briefly appointed to the quorum of the peace in the 1420s.

In any event, aside from the facts cited above and in the biography in the earlier volume, little else is known of the career of either of the two men.8 Of the facts cited in the biography of John Helton of Burton in The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 345-6, the only significant ones that certainly refer to that John Helton are his attestation of five Westmld. parlty. elections between 1407 and 1415 and his dispute, documented in two Chancery petitions, with the Warcops: C1/6/196, 282. It is clear, however, that they were not on friendly terms. This is starkly illustrated in a petition John Helton of Helton presented to Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, as chancellor, in 1409. He complained that on 26 July 1408 Richard Musgrave*, son and heir-apparent of one of the county’s leading gentry, Sir Thomas Musgrave†, with the support of Sir Thomas and John Helton of Burton, had come to his house at Helton Bacon with 120 Musgrave tenants and servants. Their aim, in the dramatic language of the petition, was to kill him, but, finding him absent, they rode to his common pasture at nearby Murton and took cattle worth 35 marks, assaulted his labourers and then drove the plundered cattle to the Musgrave castle at Hartley. Thereafter, so Helton’s complaint ran, the campaign of intimidation was maintained so that he had not dared approach his own house for the past nine months.9 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 809-11; SC8/117/5833. There is no further evidence to give this dramatic episode a context, but it may perhaps explain why the victim should have wanted to sit in Parliament two years later.

Helton of Helton’s two known sons both enjoyed successful careers. John served as under sheriff of Westmorland in the early 1450s and on the quorum of that county’s bench in the late 1450s. Thomas was elected as one of Westmorland’s coroners in 1439 and was still in office 20 years later. There may also have been a third and eldest son, for a Roger Helton was lord of the manor of Helton Bacon in 1452.10 CP40/762, rot. 89; 795, rot. 21d; C242/10/29; Cumbria RO, Carlisle, Wybergh mss, D/Wyb2/126; Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. n.s. viii. 275.