STRICKLAND, Sir Thomas

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 513-16.

On the evidence of the subsidy returns of 1436 the Stricklands were the richest gentry family in Westmorland, slightly richer that the Threlkelds and Musgraves.

Sir Thomas was assessed on an annual income of £86 and his son, Walter, on a further £13. These assessments were probably accurate: lands worth 20 marks had been settled on Walter on his marriage in 1426, and in the inquisition taken on the death of Walter’s son, another Sir Thomas (d.1496), the family’s lands were valued at over £80.3 E179/195/32; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 433.

The earlier biography speculates that a family matter prompted Sir Thomas to resume his parliamentary career in 1429 after an apparent gap of 25 years, a speculation prompted by his brother Walter’s apparent resort to subterfuge to secure a seat for Buckinghamshire in the same assembly.4 There can be no doubt that Walter took his seat. The earlier biography errs in dating the inquiry into the false Bucks. return to early in the first parlty. session. An inquiry was ordered then, but not taken until 1 Mar. 1430, a week after the dissolution: The Commons 1386-1421, i. 64n., 277. It is, therefore, interesting to find evidence of the brothers acting together during the parliamentary session: on 29 Nov. 1429 they appeared personally in the court of King’s bench in company with Geoffrey Threlkeld*, then MP for Appleby, to offer sureties of the peace that a local chaplain and William Nyanser would behave well to John Cavendish, the King’s embroiderer.5 KB27/674, rex rot. 12d. It is also worthy of remark that the Westmorland election to both this Parliament and that of 1431, at which Sir Thomas was again elected, were conducted by his brother-in-law, Thomas Bethom*.

Sir Thomas appears to have taken a particular interest in the maintenance of the local peace. The earlier biography cites several examples of his activity as arbiter in disputes involving the leading gentry of his native shire, and he assumed the same function at a much lower social level. In February 1436, for example, he awarded that a yeoman of Hackthorpe, perhaps one of his tenants there, should pay 40s. to a local woman for trespasses committed against her.6 CP40/705, rot. 312. More significant was his involvement in the resolution of the tangled family affairs of his former ward, Sir Henry Threlkeld*. In May 1444 Threlkeld invoked his assistance to reconcile him to his son, Lancelot, who objected to the jointure Sir Henry proposed to settle on his third wife. A year or so later, on 10 Aug. 1445, Strickland was one of several prominent local men who returned an award in a dispute between Sir Henry and Mabel, the widow of Sir Henry’s eldest son, William, over her jointure. It was probably on the resolution of these conflicts that Sir Thomas contracted his daughter Ellen in marriage to Lancelot as the new Threlkeld heir.7 Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. ix. 307; Cumbria RO, Kendal, Le Fleming of Rydal mss, WDRY/92/91-93; CAD, vi. C6193.

Aside from his activity as an arbiter, Strickland took seriously his place on the county bench. Between October 1428 and October 1432 he was paid for attending on 11 of the 18 days on which the justices met, and, judging from other scattered references to his appearances at sessions, a more complete record of payments to j.p.s would reveal a similar picture at other periods of his many years on the commission.8 E101/592/3. He also made occasional appearances as a juror when the royal justices of gaol delivery undertook their annual visit to Appleby, doing so on three occasions between 1429 and 1444.9 JUST3/70/4, m. 3d; 5, m. 5d; 16.

Late in his long career Strickland seems to have developed a strong connexion with the Nevilles. By 1447 he was acting as steward of the manor of Heversham, which lay near Sizergh, for George Neville, Lord Latimer. This was the prelude to a more significant arrangement: on 1 Sept. 1448 his son and heir-apparent, Walter, entered into a formal indenture of retainer with Latimer’s powerful brother, Richard, earl of Salisbury.10 Booth, ‘Landed Soc.’, 58-59; Private Indentures (Cam. Miscellany, xxxii), 128.