SAMBOURN, Nicholas I, of Chippenham, Wilts.

The Parliament of 1391 included as representatives for Bath two men whose connexions with the city were slight. Hugh de la Lynde does appear among the civic records, but there is no evidence that his companion, Sambourn, ever lived in Bath. Where his activities and interests can be distinguished from those of his namesake, Nicholas Sambourn II (possibly his son), they were in Wiltshire. Described as ‘of Wiltshire’, Sambourn stood surety for the keepers of the alien priories of Avebury and Clatford in June 1377; he was violently assaulted at Corsham in the same county in 1383; and most of his public service between 1385 and 1411 was performed there. Moreover, by 1412 he held property in Chippenham and its neighbourhood, valued at £20 a year. This probably included the land in Biddeston which he had acquired before 1392. His connexion with this area was of long standing, for he witnessed local deeds from 1371 to 1414.CFR, viii. 405; B.H. Putnam, Procs. J.P.s, 386; Feudal Aids, vi. 538; J. Aubrey, Wilts. Colls. ed. Jackson, 54; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, i. 70, 82-83, 96-99; CCR, 1385-9, p. 463. Although described as ‘sick and aged’ when removed from the coronership of Wiltshire in 1405, Sambourn senior was associated with his younger namesake on a royal commission in Gloucestershire in 1411, and was still living three years later.