CUTTYNG, Thomas, of Wilton, Wilts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Jan. 1377
Feb. 1383
Feb. 1388
Jan. 1390
1394
1395
1399

Family and Education

?s. of Agnes Cuttyng of Poulshot, Wilts.1

Offices Held

Tax collector, Wilts. Nov. 1382, Dec. 1384, Dec. 1385, Jan., Mar. 1392, Oct. 1393, May 1398, Nov. 1404.

Alnager, Wilts. 20 July 1394-Feb. 1401.

Commr. to arrest those disturbing Nicholas Bubwith in his possession of a prebend in Salisbury cathedral June 1402; of inquiry July 1407 (wrongful occupation of a messuage in Wilton).

Verderer, Grovely forest, Wilts. bef. Feb. 1408.

Biography

Cuttyng is first heard of early in 1367, when he and other burgesses of Wilton were accused by the prioress of Studley of carrying off 40 cattle and 500 sheep, worth £100, at Warminster and Wilton, of assaulting and imprisoning her servants at Wilton, and of abducting one of her bondwomen there. A royal commission was set up to investigate the charge, but what resulted is not known.2

First returned to Parliament in 1377, Cuttyng thereafter sat for Wilton on six further occasions. He also served eight times as a tax collector in the county at large. Meanwhile, he had acted as surety for the attendance of Adam Daubeney* at the Parliament of 1385. Three years later, together with William Chitterne and John Cole I*, he was made responsible for repairing bridges at Wilton, a royal grant of pontage for two years being made to them on 4 May 1388 when Cuttyng was sitting in the Merciless Parliament. Cuttyng’s name frequently appears as a witness to deeds relating not only to Wilton but also to Fisherton Anger, the neighbouring suburb of Salisbury.3 Cuttyng served as alnager in Wiltshire for almost seven years, during which period he was returned to his last two Parliaments, in 1395 and 1399. Indeed, it was while up at Westminster in October 1399 that he secured a grant renewing his tenure of office. In 1407 he was present at the county court at Wilton for the shire elections to Parliament, and though he was dismissed from his office of verderer of Grovely forest early in 1408, as being too sick and aged to perform his duties, he was again present at the Wiltshire elections in 1411.4

By 1384 Cuttyng enjoyed a remainder interest for life in a moiety of the manor of Poulshot, then held by Agnes Cuttyng (perhaps his mother). Ten years later he was in possession of property at Wilton and land nearby, at Ugford St. James, and in 1402 he acquired yet more at Warminster and Bugley. In 1412 his holdings in Wiltshire (which by then included estates at Poulshot — presumably the moiety of the manor — and Burcombe) were assessed at £17 6s.8d. a year, and he was also said to hold lands in Dorset.5 He is not recorded thereafter.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

  • 1. Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 108.
  • 2. CPR, 1364-7, p. 429.
  • 3. CPR, 1385-9, p. 437; C219/8/12; CCR, 1385-9, p. 314; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, i. 155-6, 173.
  • 4. CFR, xii. 38; C219/10/4, 10; CCR, 1405-9, p. 310.
  • 5. CIMisc. vii. 175; Wilton Corporation deeds 276-8, 287; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 108, 214; Feudal Aids, vi. 532.