SELMAN, John

More may be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 335.

After an interval of some ten years (unless he sat in the Parliament of 1439, for which no Plympton returns are extant), Selman was returned for a final time in 1445. During the autumn session he availed himself of the protection his parliamentary status afforded him to avoid proceedings for a debt of £30 brought against him by Robert Whittingham I*.4 E159/222, brevia Mich. rot. 33.

Selman’s counsel, like that of his father before him, was sought by the Exeter city authorities, who regularly treated him to meals and wine.5 Devon RO, Exeter city recs., receivers’ accts. 11-13 Hen. VI. It is likely that it was his business at the guildhall which brought him into contact with the influential John Shillingford*, who in the summer of 1452 was suing him for a debt of £10.6 CP40/766, rot. 53. Further afield, Selman’s prominent connexions included the chancellor of the Exchequer, Henry Somer*, who had sat in two Parliaments alongside him, albeit in the ranks of the knights of the shires. In Somer’s final years, Selman on several occasions assisted in the settlement of his property in Hampshire.7 Hants RO, Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C564, 570, 571.

Since Selman had evidently secured tenure of much of the property that his father had settled on him in the face of opposition from other members of the Selman family, he evidently intended that none of his kinsmen should benefit from his childless death, and consequently in his later years agreed a sale to one Richard Pree, whose title came under almost immediate attack from William Selman of Exeter, the grandson of Walter Selman.8 C1/36/86; 54/178; C4/76/186.