Robert may well have been the son of a namesake who, in 1388, had been appointed executor of the will of John Fleshewer of Thornbury, and was certainly the brother of Walter Nelme of that place, a dealer in cloth, who in 1410 was buried in St. Andrew’s church, Worcester. The latter, by his will of 16 Feb. that year, bequeathed to Robert his money belt and £3 to cover his expenses in administering his estate. Both brothers held property in Thornbury as well as in Worcester and, under the will, Robert was to have Walter’s portion should his daughter die without issue.
In 1422 the rector of St. Andrew’s had leased to Nelme, for 40 years, part of a garden alongside Nelme’s own house. In addition to this property he possesed, in right of his wife Agnes, a reversionary interest in two messuages, some land and annual rents of marks from holdings in Lickhill, Kidderminster and Lower Mitton, Worcestershire, to fall in upon the death of Margaret, wife of Walter Corbet, and it was their title to this estate which in the autumn of 1420 the Nelmes conveyed to feoffees, who included Thomas Heuster and Geoffrey Friar.
Nelme was last recorded alive in July 1446.