WAWETON, Sir Thomas

Additions and corrections may be made to the previous biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 789-93.

This states that Waweton was the son of John Waweton†, but a royal pardon granted to him in Henry V’s reign and a lawsuit which he won against his kinsman William Waweton* in the early 1440s show otherwise. In the pardon, dated 12 Oct. 1415, he is referred to as ‘son and heir of Thomas Waweton esquire’,3 C67/37, m. 28. an identification confirmed by the lawsuit, which was heard in the court of common pleas and came to trial in 1442. Sir Thomas brought the suit to safeguard his title to the manor of Great Staughton against his relative, who at that date was in possession of a third of the property. In support of his claim, he referred to a conveyance of the manor made in Edward III’s reign, by which it was settled on his parents, Thomas (son of Thomas de Wauton) and Elizabeth his wife. 4 CP40/716, rot. 318. It is also possible that the previous biography has partly conflated his career with that of his father, and that Elizabeth Waweton, his supposed first wife, was in fact his mother.

As it is not known when Waweton’s father and namesake died, it is possible that he, rather the subject of this biography, sat in some of the earlier Parliaments listed above. Consequently, it is not clear which Thomas sued the sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Sir John Howard*, in the Exchequer in October 1403, for his wages as a knight of the shire for Huntingdonshire in the Parliament of the previous year. Stating that he was owed £12, this plaintiff declared that he had delivered a writ of expenses to Howard’s under sheriff, William Aleyn, at Huntingdon in late December 1402.5 E13/120, rot. 8d.

In March 1443, during his own last term as sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, Waweton was entrusted with the custody of a couple of bonds that Thomas* and Ralph Bole* of Bedford had entered into with John Lyttelbury and others of the same town. A few years later, Lyttelbury and his associates sued him in the common pleas for unjustly detaining these securities, but it is unlikely that he was motivated by any malicious intent since he declared himself ready to deliver the bonds to whomsoever the court directed.6 CP40/700, Juyn rot. 10d.

During the early 1440s Waweton brought suits against a number of men for trespassing on his property in and around Great Staughton. The defendants included John Waweton, a fishmonger from London, whom he accused of having assaulted and wounded his servants there.7 CP40/729, rot. 189; 731, rot. 305d. In all likelihood, John was a relative of the MP.