Unpublished IPMs: John Chitewode, 1412
Posted by: mholford 11 years ago
This inquisition for John Chitewode (or Chetwode) survives only as a copy in the Exchequer archive. [1. For his biography, see http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/chetwode-sir-john-1412.] It is not clear why it was omitted from CIPM xix. No other IPMs survive for John, whose manors in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire were not held in chief. Nor does the current IPM give a full record of his holdings in Northamptonshire, since he also held the manor of Warkworth, which was held of the bishop of Lincoln. Possibly this inquisition did not record lands held of others than the king because it was realised that, since John held of the king only de honore, of the duchy of Lancaster, the crown (in theory at least) had no right of primer seisin. All the same, this document is an interesting example of how tenants who held of the duchy could be drawn into the IPM system after Henry IV's accession, despite the duchy's administrative independence (again, at least in theory).
Independent evidence for John's death survives on his tomb, which gives the date as 2 April, the vigil of St Richard (of Chichester) and the vigil of Easter, 1412. [2. Bridges, Northamptonshire, i.218; Baker, Northamptonshire, i.743.] It is curious that the IPM names John's heir as his son Thomas. Monumental inscriptions survive for John's son John (d. 10 June 1420) and his daughter Margery (d. 26 July 1420), who appear to have been the children of John's first marriage, making John the eldest son.
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Commission to John Leventhorp, esquire, and John Brooke. 28 April 1412 [Mapilton]
[CFR 1405-13, 238]
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Inquisition. ?Daventry (D....e). 25 May 1412. [Leventhorp and Brooke].
Jurors: Robert Orchard; John Schortlond; William Trafford; John Masthroop; Hugh Smalbourn; Thomas Schortlond; John Taillour; John Marchall; William Gybonus; John Pope; Adam Schawe; and John Aubon.
He held no lands or tenements of the king in chief, in demesne or in service. He held the manor of Syresham (Siresham), worth 6m. yearly, in demesne as of fee, of the king, of the duchy of Lancaster, as ¼ knight's fee.
He died on the last day of May last [31 May 1411]. Thomas is his son and next heir, aged 16 and more.
E 149/98/18 mm. 1-2