Nutbeam was probably a member of the Kentish family possessed of land at Thanington and Ackholt on the outskirts of Canterbury. He may well have been the son of a namesake, William Nutbeam of Thanington who, from 1358, held for life the manor of West Dean in Sussex, which belonged to the de Vere earls of Oxford. Still living in 1392, the older William apparently died before 1413.
It was most likely the younger man who, as ‘of the diocese of Canterbury’, in October 1398 received, together with his unnamed wife, a papal indult to have his own portable altar. There can be little doubt that this wife was Constance Septvance, widowed two years earlier, for by March 1402 Nutbeam’s brother, John, was so well acquainted with the Septvance family as to name Sir William Septvance in his will as residuary legatee and co-executor with William himself. In 1404 William and Constance started proceedings at the Kent assizes to establish her right to five marks annual rent coming from property in Warehorne, which she and her nephew, John Chicche, claimed as part of their inheritance from Constance’s father, Thomas Ellis, the wealthy merchant of Sandwich chiefly remembered for his foundation of St. Thomas’s hospital. Whether they were successful or not in this suit, Constance’s paternal inheritance and widow’s portion, comprised mainly of landed holdings between Canterbury and Sandwich, were of sufficient value to provide her husband with an annual income estimated at £50 13s.4d. by the assessors of the subsidy of 1412. Such was their social standing that the Nutbeams were admitted to the fraternity of Christ Church cathedral priory, Canterbury, in the following year.
Nutbeam’s career had seemingly begun in the closing years of Richard II’s reign, for in July 1397 he received a third share in a royal grant of certain confiscated goods worth as much as £100. However, it was not until after Henry IV’s accession that he found employment in local administration, being commissioned in January 1400 to purchase wheat, malt and other victuals for the garrison at Dover castle. His performance of the task did not meet with entire satisfaction; three years afterwards, in June 1403, he was pardoned with regard to ten tuns of red wine delivered to him for consumption at the castle, which had turned sour through over-keeping. In 1405 he was again in trouble. The refusal of an inhabitant of Wingham to pay a tax led to the impounding of one of his horses by the local sub-collector, Stephen Tropham, whereupon Nutbeam and several confederates, allegedly using armed force, retaliated by making off with four of Tropham’s own beasts. The incident was followed by his appearance in court at the suit of a county tax collector, but he was able to secure a stay of process by mainprise of his neighbour, Richard Clitheroe I, at that time deputy treasurer of Calais.
Nutbeam died before 1431, in which year his widow, Constance, was recorded as sole seized of lands in the parish of All Saints on the Isle of Thanet.