NASH (ASH), James (d.1400), of Hereford.

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. 1390
Nov. 1390
Jan. 1397

Family and Education

illegit. s. of Richard Nash*. s.p.

Offices Held

Coroner and King’s attorney in the ct. of KB 1 Oct. 1399-d.

Biography

James followed in his father’s profession as a lawyer, and was returned to Parliament for the first time while his father was joint justiciar of South Wales. Shortly before that, in October 1389, he and Richard were together associated with the latter’s friend Thomas Oldcastle (who was to represent the shire in the same Parliament) and Thomas Walwyn II*, receiver-general to Roger Mortimer, earl of March, as co-feoffees of property in Lower Bullingham near Hereford. In November 1390 James was re-elected for the city, while his father sat for the shire. The following year, along with another of Richard’s associates, the lawyer Philip Holgot*, James was entrusted by Sir John Eynesford to complete an entail of part of his estates. In September 1393 he was nominated as the attorney in England of John Acton, then second chamberlain of the Exchequer in Ireland, and in May 1397 he undertook similar duties for Sir John Cheyne of Herefordshire.1 The latter was a tenant of the earl of March, the heir presumptive to the throne, and probably also a retainer of his. So, too, had been Nash’s father, and it is likely that James himself had already entered the earl’s service well before this date, for in March 1398 he was to be among those whom the earl appointed to look after his affairs at home following his embarkation for Ireland to take up his post as King’s lieutenant. Three months later Nash procured a royal pardon. Given the political climate then prevailing, and the suspicion with which Richard II viewed the movements of the earl of March, this is hardly surprising, although it is very likely that Nash also had friends among Richard’s enemies. Certainly, on the very day after he had attended the Westminster assembly which formally deposed the King, Henry IV appointed him as crown attorney in the court of King’s bench, and, while the 1399 Parliament was still in session, he stood surety with Sir Gerard Braybrooke II, then representing Bedfordshire, for the staunch Lancastrian retainer Sir Hugh Waterton, as Exchequer lessee of St. Briavel’s castle.2

On 12 May 1400 the Exchequer was instructed to pay Nash £5 as the first half of his annual fee, and four days later, in his official capacity, he received the attorneys of the prior of Llanthony Prima. He died, however, before 9 June, this being the date of the commission set up to inquire what lands he, described as a bastard who had died leaving no heirs, had held in the city and shire of Hereford.3 In 1402 Philip Holgot conveyed to other trustees the property in Hereford, Shelwick, Upper Breinton, Lower Breinton, Lower Bullingham, Hampton Bishop, Marden and Sutton, in which he had been enfeoffed (in association with James Nash and Thomas Oldcastle), by Nash’s father; and two years later this new body secured a royal licence to grant a messuage opposite St. Peter’s church and II shops in ‘Cabouchelane’, Hereford, to the chantry at the altar of St. Stephen in the cathedral, so providing for masses for the souls of both Richard and James. The mayor and commonalty of the city gave their consent to the transaction in ‘consideration of their affection’ for both men.4

Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. (NLW 1955), no. 1921; CPR, 1399-1401, p. 314.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants: Asshe, Nassh, Naysshe.

  • 1. Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. nos. 540, 1715; CPR, 1388-92, p. 330; 1391-6, pp. 251, 311; 1396-9, p. 146; CCR, 1392-6, pp. 469-70; CP25(1)83/48/28; Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. lxxv. 43-44.
  • 2. CPR, 1391-6, p. 349; CFR, ix. 328-9; xii. 14; C67/30 m. 17.
  • 3. E404/15/326; CPR, 1399-1401, pp. 280, 314.
  • 4. Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. nos. 1326, 1921, 3166; CPR, 1401-5, p. 383.