SLINGESBY, William, of Cornw.

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

1402

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

A Cornish lawyer, Slingesby was described as ‘of Little Petelyng’ when, in 1398, he took out a pardon for a number of offences, including that of lending his support to the Lords Appellant in the years 1386 to 1388. To which one of those Lords he had been attached is not made clear. His most important client in later years was the abbot of Newenham, a Cistercian house in Devon, whose property included the Cornish hundred of Stratton, held of the duchy of Cornwall, and it was his task to account on behalf of the abbot at the duchy exchequer at Lostwithiel. There is evidence that he did so on no fewer than eight occasions between 1404 and 1412, most likely in the capacity of steward of the abbey. Certainly, he held a position of authority, for at the assizes held at Launceston in 1416 it was alleged that he and the abbot had illegally removed one Nicholas Stonhouse from the office of bailiff of the hundred.1 In the meantime Slingesby had taken out two more royal pardons, dated July 1406 and June 1410, for his outlawry for failure to appear in court to answer the parsons of Marhamchurch and St. Mawnan on pleas for debts amounting to £24 6s.9d. He occasionally assisted John Whalesborough* in the conduct of lawsuits brought at the assizes at Launceston, and also acted on his behalf as a feoffee of the manors of Trerose and Halwyn in Crantock. The lands in Whalesborough which he was holding in 1428, when he is last recorded, probably formed part of the same estate.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. C67/31 m. 2; SC6/819/13-15, 820-2, 3; JUST 1/1531 m. 25.
  • 2. CPR, 1405-8, p. 136; 1408-13, p. 133; JUST 1/129/4; Feudal Aids, i. 239.