HORDE, William

There is one very significant reference to add to the earlier biography.4 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 415-16. Early in the reign of Henry VI Horde presented a petition to the Commons. The document is badly damaged, but it can be understood in outline. He complained that he had met with resistance from 500 armed men when, as escheator under Henry V, he had attempted to levy sums due to the Crown from the lordship of Powys after the death of its lord, Edward, Lord Charlton (d. 14 Mar. 1421). The petition cannot be dated accurately. The petitioner offers to inform the Commons more fully on the matter ‘by word of mouth’, suggesting that he might have been a serving MP. If so the petition is probably to be dated to the 1427 Parliament. The matter finds an echo after his death: in July 1437 his widow and executrix sued out a pardon for all fines incurred before the King’s coronation in England, presumably as indemnification of sums still due from our MP’s troubled term as escheator.5 Cal. Ancient Petitions relating to Wales ed. Rees, 192-3; E159/223, brevia Mich. rot. 42.

This was one difficult episode in what was a troubled career that ended in Horde’s murder. Before his violent death he was involved as a perpetrator in several episodes of disorder. In June 1408 he was indicted before Thomas, earl of Arundel, and other Shropshire j.p.s for assaults detailed in the earlier biography. When the court of King’s bench visited Shropshire in June 1414, he was required to find surety of the peace to do no hurt to the King’s people, particularly to one Roger Smyth of Shrewsbury. This record long remained in the memory of the court: nearly 20 years later, in November 1433, while he was sitting as an MP, he and his sureties were called upon to answer upon it because of an alleged assault upon another townsman, Hugh Dyer, a few months before. The case was brought to a close by our MP’s murder in 1435, although there is nothing to suggest that his violent death was connected with the earlier assault on Dyer.6 KB27/613, rex rot. 9; 692, rex rot. 8d. Nor is there anything to connect his death with a more serious offence in which he had earlier been implicated. At midnight on 19 Sept. 1423, according to an unsuccessful appeal brought in King’s bench, one Thomas Balle was murdered at Condover, a few miles south of Shrewsbury, by Laurence Aspeden, acting as an agent of our MP, Thomas Corbet I*, Hugh Stapleton and other lesser men.7 KB27/656, rot. 69.

Rather Horde’s murder seems to have resulted from a long-standing enmity between him and another leading family of Shrewsbury, the Myttons. As early as 1423 our MP had sued Reynold Mytton† (d.1424) and Mytton’s wife, Alice, for burning down one of his houses in the town; and in Trinity term 1432 Alice, by then a widow, appeared personally in the court of King’s bench to sue him for trespass.8 CP40/651, rot. 370; KB27/685, rot. 14. According to indictments taken before both the coroners of the liberty of Shrewsbury and before the county j.p.s. and an appeal brought by Horde’s widow, the Myttons were principally responsible for his death on 23 June 1435 at ‘Jonesfeld’. The first indictment taken before John Mytton, a kinsman of the indicted, was spare: Thomas Mytton was said to have killed him with a sword with his mother Alice as an accessory. On the following 3 Oct. two juries, one headed by Sir Richard Lacon*, sitting before the county j.p.s. gave a fuller account: the murder was said to have been facilitated by Maurice, a servant of Richard Bentley*, abetted by Alice and carried out by Thomas Mytton, who then escaped to Wales on a horse owned by Bentley and provided by Maurice. One jury also added the interesting detail that the murder took place ‘super solum’ of the victim. Further detail was added in an appeal sued by Horde’s widow in Trinity term 1436. This implicated others in the crime as accessories, including, curiously, the abbot of Strata Marcella near Welshpool and a monk of Shrewsbury abbey, with the principals identified as Thomas Mytton, Maurice and a yeoman or knave of Powys named David ap Eignes ap Nant.9 KB27/701, rot. 18; 703, rex rot. 3; KB9/228/2/1. It may be that our MP’s enemies included others beyond the Myttons. The implied involvement of Bentley, who, like Horde, was a Shrewsbury lawyer, is suggestive, but there is no evidence to give the crime a more precise context. It is, however, clear that, as in most other similar cases, none of the accused suffered any significant punishment. The widow’s appeal was soon abandoned: in Hilary term 1437 she paid a fine of 6s. 8d. to the Crown for her failure to prosecute.10 KB29/70, rot. 14d; KB27/703, fines rot. d. Hugh Cresset* and William Bastard* stood as sureties for payment. Further, Thomas Mytton had so far recovered his place in Shrewsbury’s affairs by the autumn of 1440 as to be elected as one of its bailiffs.11 Shrewsbury assembly bk. 3365/67, f. 17v. Mytton appears to have been well connected. When, in Trin. term 1437, he appeared to answer the indictments he was able to call on the surety of Sir John Grey, s. and heir-apparent of Reynold, Lord Grey of Ruthin, and (Sir) Thomas Stanley II*: KB27/705, rex rot. 26d.