PETY, Thomas, of Appleby, Westmld.

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

May 1421

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

It is now impossible to tell if the ‘Petyt’ admitted to Lincoln’s Inn at some point before 1420 went on to represent both Appleby and Carlisle in Parliament, but this Member may well have been a lawyer. Nicholas Stanshawe (who succeeded him as a parliamentary burgess for Appleby and sat with him in May 1421) had studied there, as almost certainly had Robert Crackenthorpe* and Thomas Manningham*, so the connexion was quite strong. Pety evidently occupied a fairly influential position in local society, because at the time of his second return to Parliament for Appleby in 1427 he himself attended the county court to witness the Westmorland election. In May 1432, he and his associate, William Vincent, took on the farm of the town of Appleby, which had been badly devastated by Scottish raiding parties. Although once worth 20 marks p.a., the rent was now reduced to a mere 26s.8d., payable by them at the Exchequer for the next 20 years. In the event, the two men only accounted until May 1440, when they were persuaded to surrender their grant to John Sandewey, a retainer of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester.1

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

Variants: Pecy, Petit.

  • 1. LI Adm. i. 3; C219/13/5; CFR, xvi. 88; xvii. 157.