JACOB, Martin

More may be added to the earlier biography.5 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 483.

Jacob intermittently served as an attorney in the courts of common pleas and Chancery, numbering among his clients not only regular associates like Sir Thomas Stawell† and Sir William Palton*, but also a range of other leading south-westerners, including Sir Thomas Carewe and successive sheriffs of Somerset and Dorset, for whom he acted as receiver of writs and also fulfilled other functions.6 C1/70/163; CP40/663, rot. 140; 664, rot. 340; 667, rot. 135; 679, rot. 545; 683, rot. 545; KB27/674, rot. 28. Particularly close were his links with the Paulet family. He served as a feoffee of the estates of William Paulet of Melcombe and as an executor of his will, and subsequently maintained his ties with Paulet’s son, John*, serving as his under sheriff of Somerset in 1430-1.7 Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xvi), 139; C146/9794; C139/108/22, m. 2; CP40/679, rot. 137d; 682, rot. 125d. Occasionally, his professional activities made Jacob himself the target of litigation: thus, for instance, in 1435 he was sued by the grand-daughters and coheiresses of Thomas Cachebere for return of a deed that the latter had entrusted to Hugh Cary in the context of a dispute with Robert Pyttes, and which after Cary’s death had come into Jacob’s possession.8 CP40/697, rot. 139; CP40/699, rot. 134.

It was evidently in connexion with Jacob’s acquisition of his property in Petherton, Bridgwater and Wembdon that he and Alexander Hody* in the summer of 1447 unsuccessfully sued Roberta, the widow of James Hanyngton of North Petherton for the return of a chest of muniments, at least one of which recorded the settlement of the remainder of the lands on Alexandra, the wife of one of the several John Sydenhams alive at that time.9 CP40/746, rot. 328.

The date of Jacob’s death remains uncertain, but it occurred prior to the autumn of 1470, when his widow was suing a group of men from Bradford for a trespass.10 KB27/838, rot. 23.