FETTIPLACE, Peter (d.1444), of Stokenchurch, Oxon.

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

Dec. 1421

Family and Education

s. of Richard Fettiplace of North Denchworth, Berks. m. bef. Nov. 1414, Juliana, wid. of Robert Morley (d.1410), of Stokenchurch, s.p.

Offices Held

Coroner, Oxon. by Oct. 1419-aft. 1437.1

Commr. of inquiry, Oxon. Feb. 1422 (counterfeitors of weights), Bucks. Mar. 1439 (concealments); array, Oxon. Jan. 1436; to distribute tax rebate Jan. 1436; treat for payment of subsidies Feb. 1441; of kiddles, river Thames from Buscot to Dorchester July 1443.

Escheator, Oxon. and Berks. 26 Nov. 1431-5 Nov. 1432, 5 Nov. 1439-40.

Sheriff, Oxon. and Berks. 4 Nov. 1441-6 Nov. 1442. J.p. Oxon. 12 May 1442-d.

Biography

The Fettiplaces had lived in North Denchworth in Hanney, Berkshire, ever since the mid 13th century, following the purchase of a manor there by Adam Fettiplace, sometime mayor of Oxford. Peter himself never held this particular property, for his father was a younger son, but it may nevertheless have been through inheritance that he came into possession of land in the same county at Buckland, Shaw and Thatcham. At some stage in his career he also acquired Andrews Court in West Hanney, situated close to the seat of the main line of the family. His move to Oxfordshire came about as a consequence of his marriage to the widowed Juliana Morley: in June 1413 he acquired property in Little Milton from Robert Morley (probably her son or stepson), a year or so later the latter made a settlement on him and Juliana of the manor of ‘Exchequers’ in Stoken-church, straddling the border with Buckinghamshire; and, in the same part of the Chilterns, the Fettiplaces held former Morley properties in Aston Rowant and Lewknor (as quitclaimed to them in 1418 by Edmund Brudenell*). To these holdings Fettiplace subsequently added more, in Kingsley, Towersey and Tythrop.2

Fettiplace is first noticed early in 1410, as a witness to the parliamentary elections held in Berkshire. Two years later his seal was affixed to a quitclaim made by Ralph Stane (whose own seal was less well known) to Alice, wife of Sir Richard Adderbury II*, the Fettiplaces’ neighbour at Denchworth; and in 1415 he was party to a transaction whereby the Adderburys leased certain properties in the vicinity to John Hyde. It seems very likely that he was a lawyer, for in December 1418 Hyde named him as an arbitrator in his dispute with the abbot of Bruern concerning the church at Denchworth. In this, Fettiplace was associated with John Cottesmore (d.1439) the future judge, with whom he was to have frequent contact. Indeed, he was to name both Cottesmore and Hyde among the feoffees of his lands. During the winter of 1419-20 Fettiplace was included on the list of 12 men sent to the King’s Council by the j.p.s for Oxfordshire, as being suitable for military service in England. By then he was already serving as a coroner in the county—a position which he continued to occupy apparently without a break, certainly until 1437 and perhaps even until his death. It was expressly in this capacity that he attested the parliamentary indentures drawn up at Oxford castle on 12 occasions (including that of 1432, which recorded the return of his kinsman Thomas Fettiplace); and no doubt his own three elections to the Commons owed something to his tenure of this office. In all of his Parliaments Fettiplace was accompanied in the Lower House by John Danvers, with whom he evidently established a friendly relationship. Thus, in December 1423, while at Westminster, Danvers assisted Fettiplace to complete the acquisition of more land in Stokenchurch and Aston Rowant; and in July 1426 Fettiplace stood surety for Danvers and his son, Robert†, when they shared a grant at the Exchequer with Thomas Chaucer* of Ewelme. Fettiplace was also on good terms with Thomas Stonor*, Chaucer’s former ward, to the extent that in 1432 he was one of those entrusted by Stonor’s widow, Alice, and her second husband, Richard Drayton†, with the maintenance and education of Stonor’s daughter, Isabel, over a period of ten years; and subsequently he acted on behalf of the widow as a feoffee of her estates.3)

In February 1434 Fettiplace procured at the Exchequer for 20 marks the marriage of Thomas Broune, a royal ward. Three months later he was listed among those members of the gentry of Oxfordshire who were required to take the generally administered oath not to maintain malefactors. At the end of his shrievalty of 1441-2, he was made a trustee of the manor of Dunton, Buckinghamshire, for the late Thomas Stonor’s half-brothers, Edmund† and John Hampden†. (The same John Hampden had earlier acted alongside Sir Robert Shotesbrooke† and Richard Drayton as a co-feoffee of Fettiplace’s own holdings.) It was probably also in the capacity of a trustee (on behalf of the late William Danvers*) that in the same year (1442) Fettiplace was party to the conveyance of the manor of Winterbourne Danvers to William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk.4

Fettiplace died without issue on 4 Feb. 1444. He was succeeded by John Fettiplace, the son of his brother, Richard.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. C219/12/3-5, 13/3-5, 14/1-4, 15/1.
  • 2. Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5), ii. 93-96; VCH Berks. iv. 286, 290; VCH Bucks. iii. 98; VCH Oxon. viii. 103; CCR, 1413-19, p. 508; CAD, vi. C5997; CP25(1)191/26/1, 291/63/23.
  • 3. C219/10/5; CCR, 1409-13, p. 346; 1413-19, pp. 512, 516, 522; 1422-9, p. 128; CFR, xv. 132; Stonor Letters (Cam. Soc. ser. 3, xxix), 50; E28/97/24; CP25(1)13/81/5; C140/29/48.
  • 4. CPR, 1429-36, pp. 331, 395; 1441-6, p. 138; VCH Berks. iv. 64.
  • 5. C139/115/24.