WODELAND, Richard, of Arundel, Suss.

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

Oct. 1382
Oct. 1383
Nov. 1384
Jan. 1397
Sept. 1397

Family and Education

m. by July 1388, Alice.

Offices Held

Biography

Members of the family of Wodeland had been living in Arundel for at least 80 years before Richard’s earliest return to Parliament, and had represented the borough in the Commons on no fewer than eight occasions. Richard may have been the son of William Wodeland (fl. 1361) of Arundel, and was certainly the nephew of Master Richard Wodeland, the rector of Lambeth, who in his will of April 1376 left him much of his household furniture (including a wash-basin, a folding table, a tablecloth, a silver cup, a brass cauldron, tin dishes and plates, six salt-cellars and a bed), together with one of his robes. However, the bulk of the uncle’s estate was destined for the Church, in particular for the priory of ‘Calceto’ (Pynham) at Arundel.1

Wodeland served on the jury which at Arundel in May 1387 gave evidence at the inquisition post mortem on Joan, wife of Sir Edward St. John; and later that year he was party to an action brought in the borough court against John Patching*. In July 1388 charges were laid in the same court against William Colchestre* for an assault made on Wodeland’s wife in their house at Arundel. This property was one of several situated in the town and at Poling, Lyminster and Offham, which Wodeland held as a tenant of Richard, earl of Arundel, who was to be condemned to death for treason during the first session of Wodeland’s last Parliament, in September 1397. It may have been because of his association with the earl that he took out a royal pardon in June following.2

Wodeland probably died before May 1408, for his wife then appeared alone in the court of the honour of Arundel to answer regarding minor transgressions.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. Suss. Feet of Fines (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii), no. 1766; Suss. Arch. Colls. xcv. 48; Lambeth Pal. Lib. Reg. Sudbury, ff. 82-83.
  • 2. C136/46/20; Arundel castle ms M9; Two Fitzalan Surveys (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxvii), 118-19, 125-6, 131; C67/30 m. 18.
  • 3. Arundel castle ms M23.