STURMY, Sir William

More may be added to the earlier biography.4 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 520-3.

When returned to the first Parliament of Henry VI’s reign, Sir William Sturmy was in his mid sixties, and his long career as a diplomat and courtier was coming to a close. Veteran of at least 12 Parliaments, on this final occasion he was joined in the Commons by his grandson John Seymour I*, his illegitimate son John Sturmy* (both men sitting for Ludgershall, a borough which he himself leased from Henry IV’s widow Joan of Navarre), and his nephew and trusted friend Robert Erle* – the last representing Great Bedwyn, where Sir William’s seat, Wolf Hall, was situated. A few days before the Parliament was dissolved, in December 1422, he secured at the special request of the King’s uncle, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, enrolment in the Exchequer of the letters patent whereby he had been appointed by Queen Joan as chief steward of all her estates in England and Wales. This appointment had been made at Michaelmas 1404, shortly after she had married Henry IV. It points to an additional factor to put beside Sturmy’s experience in diplomacy and knowledge of civil law to explain his election as Speaker in the Parliament which met at Coventry just seven days later. Duke Humphrey’s intercession on Sturmy’s behalf in 1422 shows that their earlier dispute over the stewardship of Savernake forest, formally settled by mutual compromises made in 1420, had been finally laid to rest.5 Wilts. Hist. Centre, Marquis of Ailesbury mss, 1300/37-39.

The circumstantial descriptions of Sir William’s last hours, on 21 Mar. 1427, derive largely from testimony given in a suit in the Chancery 24 years later, in 1451, when his grandson and coheir (Sir) John Seymour was rebutting the claims of John Erle* (Robert Erle’s son and heir), to inherit the manors of Wolf Hall and Crofton and various other landed possessions of the late MP. John Erle claimed that John Benger† and others had been enfeoffed of the same in order that they would settle them on Robert Erle and his male issue in accordance with Sir William’s wishes. Whether this entail indeed accorded with Sir William’s intentions may never be known, although there are clear indications that at the time of the knight’s death his affairs were tidied up with remarkable rapidity. Sturmy’s will was dated in London on 20 Mar., but it was at Elvetham in Hampshire that he died on the following day: the journey must have been conducted at speed. Furthermore, the will was proved very quickly, on 25 Mar. The depositions in the Chancery suit held that on his deathbed Sir William instructed his attorney and executor William Tourney to complete enfeoffments of his estates, and alleged that the other executors (Sturmy’s illegitimate son John and nephew Robert Erle), concealed the news of his death until after delivery of seisin to the feoffees had been finalized. Yet it should be noted that Seymour seems to have been content with the arrangements, which he did not challenge while Robert Erle was still alive. He apparently accepted that Sir William had intended his nephew to benefit from the revenues of several of his properties for his lifetime. The point at issue in 1451 was whether he had meant Erle to hold them in tail.6 C1/19/360; CPR, 1446-52, pp. 554-6; PCC 7 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 55). That he valued Erle and wished to advance him is clear from the grants he had made in the early years of the century whereby he gave his nephew lands he had acquired by purchase in the manor of Westcourt at Burbage.7 Marquis of Ailesbury mss, 1300/33, 34.

Sturmy also made sure that his illegitimate son John could inherit and pass on to his own children other parts of his accumulated lands. The bulk of his estates, however, were destined to pass to Seymour and his cousin William Ringbourne*, and continued in their lines, albeit not without debate between them as to the division of the spoils.