NELME, Robert

More may be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 817-18.

The plea rolls of the court of common pleas confirm that Nelme was a tradesman, for he was identified as a ‘vintner alias merchant’ in 1424, when he brought actions for debt in that court against a taverner from Lichfield and a yeoman and saddler from Wolverhampton. He was represented at Westminster by his attorney, John Forthey*, a fellow Worcester man.4 CP40/655, rot. 580.

In 1433 Nelme was one of the leading citizens of Worcester who reached an agreement with the local cathedral priory over its water supply.5 Worcester Chs. (Worcs. Historical Soc. 1909), 162 (‘Robert Nelius’). He was more active in the city’s affairs than hitherto realized since he served at least eight terms as a bailiff of Worcester, three of which (1430-1, 1436-7 and 1440-1) are omitted from the previous biography. He therefore held the office continuously for four years in the second half of the 1430s. On 16 Nov. 1436, a few weeks after the end of his fourth term as bailiff, Nelme was the defendant in an Exchequer suit brought by John Assheton, vicar of the church of St. Peter’s, Worcester. Assheton claimed that Nelme had ordered his arrest and imprisonment in June 1436, and that he did not regain his freedom until he had paid over 13s. 4d. Nelme responded by obtaining licence to negotiate with his opponent out of court where, presumably, the matter was settled. The Exchequer plea roll does not reveal the circumstances of Assheton’s arrest but it is likely that the sum in question represented money he had owed the city’s authorities. Another Worcester man, John Welford, likewise sued Nelme in the Exchequer on the same 16 Nov. Welford, who appeared in person, brought his bill in the name of the King as well as of himself. He alleged that Nelme had continued to trade as a vintner during his recent term as bailiff, in contravention of the statute of 12 Edw. II, c.6, which forbade any municipal officer responsible for keeping the assize of bread and ale from dealing in those commodities. Again, Nelme obtained licence to interplead with his opponent out of court and the outcome of his dispute with Welford is unrecorded.6 E13/140, rot. 6d; Statutes, i. 178.

The previous biography states that Nelme was last recorded alive in July 1446. In fact, he certainly survived beyond that date. In the following February he attested the Worcester election to the Parliament of 1447 and in the spring of 1449 he was an inmate of the Marshalsea prison. His imprisonment arose from another lawsuit relating to his alleged breach of the statute of 12 Edw., c.6, this time during his last known term as bailiff. Initiated in the court of King’s bench on 30 Apr. 1449, the action was brought by the attorney-general, Thomas Greswold. According to Greswold, Nelme had sold ten tuns of wine while bailiff, but Nelme denied making the alleged sales. The matter was referred to a trial and a jury was summoned for the following octaves of St. John the Baptist.7 KB27/752, rex rot. 25.

As there is no reference to the case in the plea roll for Trinity term 1449, it is very likely that Nelme died before the trial could take place. He was certainly dead by Hilary term 1450, when his feoffees, John Vampage*, Thomas Swyney alias Cook* and William Pullesdon*, were sued in the common pleas by the lawyer Thomas Lyttleton. Lyttelton claimed that Nelme, now no longer alive, had unjustly disseised his late father, Thomas Hewster*, of three messuages in Worcester. Pullesdon was also Nelme’s executor, in which capacity he was the defendant in another suit of that term, again in the common pleas, as well as in a Chancery case of 1451. Lyttleton and his widowed mother, Elizabeth, were the plaintiffs in the common pleas action. Suing in their capacity as the intestate Hewster’s administrators, they alleged that Pullesdon was withholding £40 from them.8 CP40/756, rots. 110d, 281d; 759, rots. 50, 314d. The plaintiffs in the Chancery case were Thomas Exeter of Bristol and his wife Agnes, a niece of the late MP. The Exeters alleged that Nelme had agreed to settle goods to the value of 100 marks on them at the time of their marriage, of which sum they had received all but £40 when he died. They also asserted that, on his deathbed, Nelme had arranged to make good the shortfall, by selling lands worth £60 to Pullesdon and directing him to give them £40 of the purchase price. The purpose of the bill was to secure this sum, which the Exeters alleged Pullesdon was refusing to pay.9 C1/18/73.

The late MP also featured in a suit which Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Hewster, brought in King’s bench against John, Lord Beauchamp of Powick. When the suit came to pleadings in Easter term 1462, Elizabeth alleged that her son, Thomas Lyttleton, had granted her an interest for life in a messuage and gardens, which she had held until Beauchamp had entered them in September 1447. Her opponent claimed title by virtue of a demise by Nelme. According to Beauchamp, Hewster, Nelme and others had held the properties as feoffees to the use of the will of Agnes, widow of John Belle of Worcester. Later, after all his co-feoffees had died, Nelme had enfeoffed Beauchamp and the latter’s own feoffee, (Sir) Humphrey Stafford I* of Grafton. The dispute was referred to a jury but it would appear that the intended trial, subsequently twice postponed, never occurred.10 KB27/804, rot. 75; 805, rots. 23, 26. John Belle should probably be identified with John, son of the Thomas Belne† of Worcester for whom Hewster and Nelme had acted as executors.