Sir John Throckmorton of Fladbury, Worcestershire ^{1 3 4}

  General Notes:

THROCKMORTON (THROGHMARTON), JOHN (1385-1445); of Throckmorton in Fladbury, Worcs. Chamberlain of the Exchequer and Under Treasurer of England 1428-45; lawyer.

M.P. WORCESTERSHIRE 1414, 1420, 1422, 1432, 1433, 1439-40.

S. and h. of Thomas Throckmorton of the same, M.P. Worcs. 1397, by Agnes da. and coh. of Alexander Besford; m. 1409, Alienor,⁷ da. and coh. of Guy Spiney of Coughton, Warw.

Eschr., Worcs., 1417-9; sub-sheriff, Worcs., 1416-8, 1419-20, 1430-1 ; J.P. Worcs., of the quorum, Jan. 1414 till death; J.P. Warw., 26 Oct. 1433 to 5 Dec. 1439; on Worcs. comns. 1430 onwards. He was also a clerk in the Treasuy from c. 1410 onwards; was granted land in Fladbuy 1415/6; was with the Earl of Warwick at Caen 1417/8; clerk to the Treasurer of England alias Under Treasurer of England, Feb. 1428 to July/Dec. 1443, and one of the two Chamberlains of the Exchequer 1438 till death,⁸ the appointments overlapping; each office carried 8d. a day.⁹ The issue rolls generally style him "clerk to the Treasurer ", the patent rolls "Under Treasurer ".¹⁰

He was one of the Earl of Warwick's attorneys while abroad, and one of his council with 20 marks salary from 1431; pardoned 1437; a trustee under Warwick's will, 1439; a keeper of Warwick lands during the minority, 1439. He had issue of stuff in connection with the coronation of the Queen, but died before the affair, 12 Apr. 1445.

Will, made in London, dat. 12 Apr., pr. 19 Apr. 1445.¹

This is the first of the Throckmortons of Coughton\emdash an example of the 15th century combination of county, parliament, and executive. He was a squire of Worcs., a trustee of the Warwick estates, frequently knight of the shire, and at the same time a permanent official at the Treasuy. The Lord Treasurer of England might change, his "clerk ", the Under Treasurer, remained. Of the two Chamberlains of the Receipt one was generally a lord, the other sometimes the clerk to the Treasurer and always a commoner. Throckmorton's posts ranked above that of Chancellor of the King's Exchequer, below that of Treasurer of England. But whether it was a Civil Service appt. or a political and parliamentay office, is a question which would hardly enter the mind of the 15th century ruling class.

7 In May 1448 she obtained licence, as widow of John Throckmorton, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, to found a chantry at Fladbury.
8 He accounts as Chamberlain of the Exchq., Mich. 1438-40, and as Treasurer's clerk, Mich. 1440-5 (Exchq. Accts. Wardrobe).
9 8d. a day as Chamberlain, 5d. more as clerk to the Treasurer (Issue Rolls).
10 Cal. Pat. Rolls (1440).

[History of Parliament]

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John Throckmorton (...), lord of Throckmorton and Black Nauton, in county Worcester, and in right of his wife of Coughton and Spernore, county Warwick; died 13th April, 1445. Will dated April 12, 1445. Proved 19th April, 1445, P. C. C. 31 Luffenham.

He was employed in the service of Earl Richard (son of Thomas, Earl of Warwick) at Caen in Normandy in the fifth year of Henry V, and having been educated to the study of the law was afterwards of that monarch's council, Chamberlain of the Exche¬ quer, 2 and 8 H. V, for which he bore the title of Under Treasurer of England.

Knight of the shire for county Worcester, 2 and 8 H. V, and 1 H. VI. In 4 H. VI, he was commissioner with sundry other persons of eminence for proposing a loan of money from the king's subjects in Warwickshire. In the ninth year of the same reign he was one of the general attorneys constituted by the Earl of Warwick for managing all his affairs during his abode beyond the sea, being the same year appointed a member of his council for life, with an allowance of 20 marks per annum. In 7 H. VI, he was one of the six justices of the peace for county Worcester, that being all there were at the time. In the twelfth year of the same reign he was named conservator of the peace in Warwickshire, and in the seventeenth year of H. VI he was one of the executors of the before mentioned Earl, upon whose death, which occurred in the same year, he was joined in authority with Richard, Duke of York, Richard, Earl of Salisbury, and many other persons of quality for the custody of the castles, lordships, etc., belonging to the Earl during the minority of Henry, son and heir. In the same year he was again in commission of the peace for Warwickshire. He married the day after the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 10 Henry IV (1409), Alianore, daughter and co-heir of Sir Guy de la Spine of Coughton, Warwickshire, knight, by Katherine, the heiress of Wyke. Arms of Wyke as given in a window at Coughton: Gules a fess argent between three gutees d'or two and one. Arms of de la Spine: Sable a chevron argent between three crescents or.

John Throckmorton was the first of the family to use the arms on a chevron argent three bars gemelles sable. On page opposite...

John's will was dated 12th April, 23 H. VI, proved April 19, 1445, before the venerable Master Alexander Prowit, commissary, Register P. C. C. 31, Luffenham...

Issue:
1. Thomas Throckmorton, born circa, 1412, died 1472; married circa, 1446, Margaret Olney.
2. John Throckmorton, died 3rd August, 1473; married Isabel Bruges.
1. Elizabeth Throckmorton married Robert Russell, of Strensham, county Worcester,
2. Agnes Throckmormorton married Thomas Wynslow, Esq., of Burton, county Oxon; died before 31st March, 1463.
3. Margaret Throckmorton married John Rouse of Ragley county, Worcester.
4. Jane Throckmorton married Robert Gyford.
5. Maud Throckmorton married (first) Sir Thomas Greene of Greene's Norton, Northamptonshire. Maud married (second) Richard Middleton of Greene's Norton (in right of his wife).
6 Alianore Throckmorton married Sir Richard Knightly of Fawsley, Northamptonshire.

[Historical Account of the Throckmorton Family] ^{1 6}

  Events

• Manorial Estate, 1415-1445, Throckmorton Manor, Throckmorton, Pershore, Worcestershire, WR10, GB. ⁷ In a catalogue of the charters of the monastery of Worcester there is mentioned one by Wulfstan called the Archbishop, who was Bishop of Worcester from 1062 to 1095, relating to three mansae at THROCKMORTON (Throcmortune, xi cent.; Trokemardtune, xii cent.; Trockmerton, Trochmerton, xiii cent.; Throkmarton, xiv cent.), but the nature of this charter is not known. Throckmorton is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, being then probably included in Fladbury, of which it was part until the 15th century. After 1415 the manor was held of the Bishops of Worcester at a fee-farm rent of £12.

Throckmorton gives its name to the family of Throckmorton, who were tenants of the Bishop of Worcester at an early date, Reoland Throckmorton appearing as a juror for the hundred of Oswaldslow in the middle of the 12th century. Raulyn, who held 2½ hides in Throckmorton about 1182, may have been a member of this family, possibly identical with Reoland. Adam de Throckmorton apparently owned land in Worcestershire in 1174\endash 5, and John and Joscelin de Throckmorton appear in 1175\endash 6 and 1176\endash 7, but it is not known that they held land in Throckmorton. Henry son of John de Throckmorton at the beginning of the 13th century obtained from Mauger Bishop of Worcester (1199\endash 1212) half a hide of land in Fladbury, and he is probably the Henry son of John who is mentioned in the Testa de Nevill as holding a virgate of land in Throckmorton.

Adam son of Robert, who also held at that time a virgate of land in Throckmorton, was possibly the Adam de Throckmorton who was dealing with a third of a fee in Upton and Throckmorton in 1232\endash 3. According to a pedigree of the family given by Nash, Adam died before 1248, and was succeeded by his son Robert, who was alive in 1252. Robert appears to have been succeeded before 1266 by a son Simon. Robert de Throckmorton, who obtained a dispensation from the Bishop of Worcester in 1275, was son of Simon. He was living in 1315\endash 16, and is perhaps identical with the Robert de Throckmorton who in 1333\endash 4 settled four messuages and land in Throckmorton upon his son John and Maud his wife, with remainder to his other children, Nicholas, Sybil, Alice and Joan. The manor of Throckmorton seems, however, to have passed to Robert's son Giles, for a messuage and 2 carucates of land in Throckmorton were settled in 1341\endash 2 upon Giles and his wife Agnes, and upon their sons Robert, John, Thomas and Richard in tail-male.

Thomas Throckmorton, who, according to the pedigree of the family given in the Visitation of Warwickshire, was a son of John Throckmorton, was of the retinue of Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick in 1396, was escheator for the county of Worcester in 1402, and Constable of Elmley Castle in 1404\endash 5. He seems to have made a lease of the manor in 1410\endash 11, and was succeeded by his son Sir John Throckmorton, who was also of the retinue of the Earl of Warwick. In 1415 the Bishop of Worcester obtained licence to grant fourteen messuages and 2 carucates of land in Throckmorton to Sir John de Throckmorton, to be held of the bishop at a feefarm rent. This was probably the estate which the bishop had held in demesne in the 12th century. Habington evidently refers to this transaction when he says that John Carpenter, who succeeded as Bishop of Worcester in 1444, so much disliked the alienation of Throckmorton that he threatened to excommunicate the Prior and monks of Worcester on account of it, whereupon they sued to the Archbishop of Canterbury to send for Thomas son of John Throckmorton and command him to give satisfaction to the Bishop of Worcester. But 'thys lounge contention beeinge in the end utterly extinguished, thys good Bishopp entred into such a leauge of fryndshyp with Thomas Throckmorton as in Testimony of his charitye he enterteyned him to be Stuarde of all hys Castelles, Mannors etc. with a fee of 10 li. per annum.' In 1440 Sir John was styled chamberlain of the Exchequer and under-treasurer of England. He died in 1445, and was buried in the church of Fladbury, where there is an inscription to his memory. Sir John Throckmorton was succeeded by a son Thomas, who in 1467 obtained a general pardon for all offences committed by him before 23 June. He died in 1472,...

• Manorial Estate, 1445, Coughton Manor, Coughton, Alcester, Warwickshire, B49, GB. ⁸ ...Simon and Constance had other daughters. One, whose name was Joan, is said to have been twice married: first to Hugh de Burleye, with whom she joined in 1257 in enfeoffing William de Spineto of a half virgate in Coughton, and subsequently to Hugh de Norfolk, who joined with her in 1274 in a further grant to William de Spyney (this time with Joan his wife) of land in Samborne and Coughton, together with the reversion of the third part thereof held by Constance widow of Simon de Cocton in dower.

Very shortly after this a dispute between William de Spineto and Joan and the Prior of Studley concerning tithes and some matter of violence was settled before the Bishop of Worcester in 1275 and some unspecified sentence upon them was released. Whether from the same sentence or not, the archdeacon was ordered to pronounce the absolution of William in 1279, and again in 1284, when the sheriff was told to release him from prison. This later trouble may have had a financial basis, as Roger the clerk, William's son, gave bond for repayment of a debt due to the executors of the late Archbishop of York, the bishop's brother. Probably in fulfilment of this bond Roger gave to the Bishop of Worcester 1 messuage and 3 carucates of land in Coughton. The bishop surrendered it to the king, who returned it to him, to hold of the chief lords of the see, and in October 1293 the bishop granted to William son of William de Spineto the manor of Coughton near Spernall. Subsequently, the Bruly manor of Coughton was acquired by William de Spineto in September 1298,* and in March 1299 he settled on himself and Margery his wife the manor of Coughton, with all its rights and property there and in Wike 'as well within the liberties of the Templars as without'.* In 1300 William 'of Spinney' was said to hold that part of the vill of Coughton with its wood and plain which was 'on the side of the river Arrow towards the west', and in 1315 he was holding Coughton as ½ knight's fee of Guy, Earl of Warwick. He died before the end of 1316, having enfeoffed William de Sutton of Warwick of the manor.* In 1318 the manor was settled on William Sutton and his wife Margery for their lives, with remainders to William son of William 'del Espine' and his issue, or Joan his sister, Alice her sister, or his right heirs, and William de Sutton is referred to as lord of Coughton in 1320. It is possible that William de Sutton had married the widowed Margery de Spineto and obtained the guardianship of her son and his estate. He heads the list for the Lay Subsidy in 1332 and was still lord of Coughton in September 1338,* though in June of that year William 'del Espinee', who had married one Alice at least twelve years before, was already called lord and in 1341 was holding his court there.* He must at one time have settled away the manor, as on 1 March 1354 Thomas Paynel of Berkshire released to Sir Thomas de Grendone his co-parcener, all his rights in the manor, with plough-land, tenants free and neif, rents, mills, dove-cotes, waters, fisheries, &c.* Sixteen years later Thomas de la Louwe, Ralph Biron, chaplain, and Richard de Aston conveyed the manor to William de Spineto and Alice his wife for life, all except the two mills which, with the reversion of the manor and a yearly rent of 13 marks till that should fall in, went to Guy their son and Katherine his wife.* In June 1398 Sir Guy Spyne was lord of Coughton,* but in 1411 he and Katherine made two enfeoffments to Edmund and Roger Lowe, in each case of half the manor. The couple had no son; their two daughters had married, Alice, William Tracy, and Eleanor, John son of Thomas Throckmorton of Fladbury, Worcs. Next year, in June 1412, Edmund and Roger settled the whole manor on Guy and Katherine for life, with remainder as to one moiety to John Throckmorton and Eleanor and their issue (reserving to Roger the ancient services due from the property called Verdounes), the other moiety to William Tracy and Alice and their issue.* In March 1430 the Prior of Studley leased to John and Eleanor extensive lands in Coughton, including Canneclose,* now Cane Close; most of this was quit claimed to them by the next prior three years later.* On 1 April 1438 John and Eleanor were admitted into the fellowship of the Abbey of Evesham. In May 1449 Eleanor, now a widow, and Thomas her son granted some of their property in Worcestershire to John Tracy, son of Alice, on condition that he left Thomas in undisturbed possession of both moieties of Coughton.* John Tracy enfeoffed Thomas Throckmorton in the Tracy half of the manor so that when Thomas died in July 1472 he held the whole manor of Coughton...

• Will, 12 Apr 1445. ⁹ The last will & testament of me Johan Throckmorton made at London XIIth daye of April the yere of our Lord MCCCCXLV. I Johan Throgmorton in good mynde make my testament in this manner: first I bequeathe my soule to Almighty God to our Lady Seynt Marie and to all the holie companie of heven, my body to be buried in the parish Church of S. John Baptist of ffladbury in ye County of Worcester also I will & charge yt myne executors let make a stonne of Marbyll of such largenesse as may kever my ffadur my modyer and me and my wife yeff she wold lye per, with a memoriall upon ye said stone after ye discretion of myne executors. Also I will and charge ye executors of this my last will yt my detts first ben payd above all thyngs, and yt where I have been all dayes of my life in my Countrie Astever in ye worlde as ye worlde asketh puocheift divers landes and tenements and made divers Contracts and covenents And yet be any man yt can complayn and say yt I have not truly and duly after seeth and concerns performed & fulfilled such covenants as wer made betwixte thoo persons & me. I will and charge yat yeyhen agreed & contented. Also I wolle and charge yf yr be any person yt I have take goode to labour for him and I have not do my labore and entent to performe his entent I will that he be agreed. Also I bequeathe to Robert Russell yt hath wedded my eldest daughter C marks. Also to Thomas Wynslow I bequeathe yt hath wedded my second daughter of such goodes (???) ye sayd Thomas Wynslow oweth me after ye discretion of myne executors also I bequeathe to John Rous yt hath wedded my third daughter XL li. Also I bequeathe to Robert Gyfford, yt hath wedded my fourth daughter XX li., ye which he oweth me, with yat, yat he wolde be kynde Alianore my wyf and to his wyf yt ys my daughter. Also I bequeathe to Thomas Greene yt hath wedded my fyffe daughter such sylver plate as Sir Thomas Green Knight hath leyed to me to wedde and for seyd mony a day agoo and in case Sir Thomas Greene Knight will pay ye somme yat ye plate lyeth fore yen I will that my sone Thomas Grene have ye sayd somme. Also I bequeathe to Richard Knightley yt hath wedded my sixte daughter, all ye silver plate yt thabbot of Seynt James Abbey of Northampton hadde in plegge ye which I sette oute. Also I bequeathe to John my younger son all my money yt he oweth me. Also I will yt my servants been rewarded after ye discretion of my executors and after yeir continuance in yeir service. Also I bequeathe to my modyr Church of Worcester XL s. Also I bequeathe to ye new werk of St. Brydes Church in fletesbriele XX s. Also I bequeathe to every of ye fower orders of ffryers in Worcester XL s. Also I bequeathe to every prison house in London vjs. viijd. The residue of all my godes, I will and charge myne executors yt yey done for me and dispose so as yey wolde yt I shyld do for them and yey had passed oute of ye world before me. My executors, Alianore my wyf chef executor, Tho. Throckmorton myn son and Rawlyn Ingoldesby the Coper executor, and I will yat ye seyd Rawlyn have for his labour and diligence yt he must have aboute of yis my testament XX li. I ordeyne also and mak overseer of this my will and testament for grete affairs and trust yt I have hadde in his Lordship and shall have after my deth Sir Rauf Buttelere, Lord of Sudeley and Treasor of England. He for yt oversighte to be rewarded after ye discretion of myne executors.
In witness whereof I have sette ye seale of Myne Armes (yenen) ye day and yere above said.

• Probate, 19 Apr 1445.

John married Eleanor Spyne, daughter of Sir Guy Spyne of Coughton, Warwickshire and Katherine, on 25 Jun 1409.^{1 2} (Eleanor Spyne was born about 1380 and died in 1467.)