One of the most powerful and influential figures of his day, Leventhorpe rose to prominence through his loyal service to the house of Lancaster. His early life was spent in Yorkshire, where he established the connexion with Henry, earl of Derby, which was to prove so crucial in the furtherance of his administrative career. He had already been a member of Derby’s household for at least three years when, in 1390, he accompanied the earl on the first stage of his expedition to Prussia and subsequently acted as his messenger between Hertfordshire and Calais. Being by then both attorney-general and receiver-general for the earl, Leventhorpe was engaged almost continuously in a round of business which brought him into contact with the leading figures in the realm. In February 1393, for example, he travelled to Winchester for discussions with the duke of Gloucester (who was attending Parliament there) over the partition of the de Bohun estates; and for the next six months he devoted his attention to official duties in various parts of the country. During this period he was the recipient of a number of bonds, but since these were often made over to him jointly with William Loveney, another of Derby’s retainers, we may safely assume that he was acting on the earl’s behalf. It was because of his close attachment to the latter, who had aroused the lasting enmity of the court party as one of the junior Lords Appellant of 1388, that Leventhorpe sought to protect himself from attack by suing out a royal pardon in May 1398. His patron was, however, unable to avoid Richard II’s implacable desire for vengeance, and was banished in the following September. Not surprisingly, Derby appointed Leventhorpe as his attorney with specific powers to take seisin of the duchy of Lancaster estates in the event of John of Gaunt’s death; and when this arrangement was rescinded by King Richard in February 1399, Leventhorpe felt no compunction in supporting the earl’s attempt to regain his inheritance. It is now impossible to determine exactly what role he played during the weeks leading to Derby’s coup d’état, but his commitment to the Lancastrian cause, from the landing at Ravenspur onwards, was beyond question and earned its due reward.
From the date of his coronation in October 1399 until his death 14 years later, Henry IV remained aware of the great debt which he owed to Leventhorpe, one of his most loyal and able servants. He not only confirmed him in his duchy offices, but also bestowed upon him many other marks of favour. In 1399 alone, he became constable of Odiham castle and keeper of the royal manor there at a salary of 40 marks p.a., as well as tenant for life of certain crown property in the neighbouring village of Alton worth 24 marks a year. He also received an annuity of £24 charged upon the duchy revenues from Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire, and became an esquire of the royal body. Leventhorpe had already been granted the manor of Ugley in Essex by Bolingbroke during the previous reign, and this was confirmed to him for life in 1402, and then in tail-male eight years later. It brought him between £20 and 40 marks p.a., to which was added, in March 1404, a moiety of the manor of Wethersfield in the same county worth a further 50 marks p.a. By this date he had taken possession of a number of houses belonging to the duchy in Sawbridgeworth, which he was able to maintain with generous grants of timber made to him periodically by the King. From time to time these regular payments were supplemented by gifts of wardships or preferential leases. Thus, in December 1411, Leventhorpe became keeper of the Essex estates of the late John St. Cler during the minority of his young heir, and one year later he took on the farm of crown property in Essex, Huntingdonshire and Staffordshire. He was also entrusted with part of the inheritance of John Goldington I’s son, although the boy died young, so the grant proved short lived.
One of Henry’s last acts was the award to Leventhorpe, made in February 1413, of letters patent exempting him from holding office in local government or serving as a shire knight. His election to the first Parliament of the new reign seems to have been forced upon him because of his executorship of the late King’s will, which was one of the first items of business to come before the two Houses.
Henry V’s general reluctance to retain the senior duchy employees favoured by his father did not extend to Leventhorpe, who, alone among his colleagues, was confirmed in all the grants and appointments awarded to him in the previous reign. Other posts, such as the clerkship of various duchy markets, and the stewardship of both the Savoy manor and the newly acquired de Bohun estates, further augmented his already impressive list of offices. At least eight leases of crown property in the home counties were made to him while Henry V occupied the throne, and of these six brought with them additional rights of marriage and wardship. Furthermore, in May 1421, he received a supplementary annuity of 46 marks charged upon the revenues of the duchy manor of Great Dunmow in Essex.
Leventhorpe’s election to Henry VI’s first Parliament was, however, chiefly due to the exceptional position which he occupied as executor of the two previous kings of England. Shortly before his departure for France in July 1415, Henry V made Leventhorpe a feoffee-to-uses of a substantial part of the duchy of Lancaster estates, and also chose him to act as his executor. In his second will, of 10 June 1421, the King confirmed the executorship, to which he added further powers of administration. Although Thomas Langley, bishop of Durham, shared the distinction of having been appointed to execute the wills of both Henry IV and his son, Leventhorpe in fact carried the main responsibility for co-ordinating the work of the two bodies of executors, and this, from September 1422, took up a great deal of his time.
Leventhorpe’s busy administrative career left him little opportunity to pursue his own personal affairs, and it is hardly surprising that little is known about him as a private individual. Henry V was certainly not alone in appreciating his qualities as a trustee, and it is worth noting that he showed a general readiness to perform this service for a host of friends and neighbours in Essex and Hertfordshire. Despite their temporary estrangement over the partition of the de Bohun inheritance, Leventhorpe was frequently involved in the countess of Stafford’s property transactions, as he had previously been in those of her grandmother, Joan de Bohun, countess of Hereford.
From time to time, Leventhorpe went to law, usually for the recovery of debts which may, perhaps, have been owed to him in his official capacity. Certain disputes were, however, of a more personal nature, as, for example, in May 1408, when he was bound over to keep the peace towards John Salisbury of London. Some years later, in 1425, Thomas, Lord Poynings, challenged his right to the custody of a royal ward in a case which dragged on for a long while despite the intervention of the royal council.
Active as a crown servant until the very last, Leventhorpe made his will on 29 Jan. 1435 and was dead by the following November. The scrupulous care and detail with which he drew up this document clearly reflects his experience as a royal executor, and does much to explain his success in the administrative field. His eldest son and heir, John, himself a distinguished employee of the duchy of Lancaster, inherited most of the family estates which were said to be worth £63 a year in Hertfordshire alone. At least one of the MP’s sons appears to have predeceased him. This was Robert, whose return to the Parliament of 1425 as representative for Hertfordshire was actually witnessed by Leventhorpe himself, and may well have owed not a little to his influence. Both Leventhorpe and his widow (who died some two years after him) were buried in the parish church of Sawbridgeworth, beneath a fine memorial brass which depicts him wearing the livery collar of the house of Lancaster.