MODY, William (by 1524-58 or later), of Houghton and Slindon, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1524.1

Offices Held

Servant of Thomas West, 9th Lord la Warr.2

Biography

William Mody’s parentage has not been discovered but he may well have come from a Hampshire family. John Mody of Abbotts Ann near Andover, who died in 1538, had both a son and a brother named William, while some lands in nearby Stockbridge once held by a John Mody, probably of Little Somborne, had by 1554 passed to a William Mody. The Hampshire family may have been related to that of Garsdon, Wiltshire.3

Mody first appears in 1545 as a witness to the will of Lord la Warr’s sister Catherine, made at Offington, la Warr’s Sussex residence; he was probably then a recent recruit to that household since he had not been included among la Warr’s servants when they were mustered six years earlier. In August 1552 la Warr sent his ‘servant’ Mody to reclaim a house in West Grinstead wrongfully occupied by Francis Shirley (q.v.). The aged 3rd Duke of Norfolk was lord of New Shoreham, but as Mody was returned for the borough to the Parliament of April 1554 with Leonard West, la Warr’s half-brother, the two had evidently been nominated by la Warr. Before the next Parliament was summoned both Norfolk and la Warr were dead, the first leaving a successor under age and the second none, but Mody was again returned, probably in default of another nominee, so becoming the only man known to have sat twice for New Shoreham in this period. When the House was called early in January 1555 he was one of those found to be absent without leave and on account of this dereliction an information was laid against him in the King’s bench. A writ of venire facias was issued but no further process is recorded against Mody until Trinity 1558 when he was fined 53s.4d. and gave as his sureties two lawyers. He had been returned in October 1554 as of Houghton but was proceeded against as of Slindon, both parishes being near Arundel. Shortly before he was fined, the collector of the loan for Sussex reported that Mody, although ‘in the Queen’s book’ for £10, had received no privy seal. Nothing further has been discovered about him.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. J.W. Swales

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference.
  • 2. SP10/14/62(i).
  • 3. PCC 11 Crumwell, 14 Alenger; C1/1473/29; VCH Hants, iv. 477; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 213; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 135-6, 199-200.
  • 4. SP2/S, f. 206; 10/14/62; 11/13/2; W. Suss. RO, wills 5, f. 57; KB27/1187; 29/188, rot. 48; C219/23/132.