LUDWELL, John

More may be added to the earlier biography.1 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 651.

As an attorney in the courts at Westminster, Ludwell counted among his clients owners of livestock who had become embroiled in grazing disputes with the borough of Malmesbury. He appeared on behalf of these graziers on several occasions in Easter term 1425, to answer suits that the borough had brought against them in the court of King’s bench. The defendants were accused of having wrongfully grazed their livestock on common pasture at Malmesbury, and in each case Ludwell sought and obtained leave for them to treat with the burgesses out of court. These lawsuits had arisen from local disagreements of a number of years’ standing, since some of the defendants (all of whom were from Malmesbury or its vicinity) were alleged to have begun their illegal grazing early in Henry V’s reign. During the same Easter term, Ludwell represented William Scerre, a parker from Burton next Malmesbury, in another lawsuit brought by the burgesses. According to them, Scerre had helped the abbot and two other monks from Malmesbury abbey to raid a warren belonging to the borough. The burgesses claimed that he and the monks had forcibly entered the warren in December 1420 and again four years later, on each occasion carrying off 500 rabbits worth £10. As in the lawsuits over the alleged illegal grazing, Ludwell gained permission for Scerre to negotiate with his opponents out of court. It is not known if the grazing disputes and the quarrel over the warren were in any way connected, or whether it was just a coincidence that they came to a head at the same time. The plea rolls show that Ludwell was still alive and working as an attorney at Westminster in 1433.2 KB27/656, rots. 60d, 76d, 79, 79d, att. rots. 1d, 2; 689, att. rot.; 690, att. rot. 1.