WYLASTON, John, of Lapley and Rule, Staffs.

Wylaston was probably a kinsman of the John Wylaston who appeared regularly as an attorney and royal commissioner in Staffordshire during the mid 14th century.CFR, vii. 2; viii. 25; ix. 339; CPR, 1361-4, p. 472; 1374-7, p. 311; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xii. 109; xiv. 106, 153, 245. The MP himself first comes to notice in May 1392, when he was leased a burgage worth 30s. a year in Stafford by the Crown, although the previous tenants successfully contested his title and the grant was annulled. If, as seems likely, he was the John Wylaston of Lampley, Staffordshire, who faced charges of theft in 1397, he must have owned a substantial, if scattered, amount of farmland. By 1404 he had taken on the rent of a meadow near Stafford and other property in the neighbouring village of Rule which belonged to the earls of Stafford; and it may well be that the holdings in Gnosall occupied by the Wylaston family in later years had formerly been in his hands.CFR, xi. 40-41; CCR, 1392-6, p. 66; Wm. Salt Lib. Stafford, Salt deed (Pearson), 278; Staffs. RO, D1721/1/8, ff. 197, 206; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xv. 83. Meanwhile, in January 1397, Wylaston went surety at the Exchequer for Richard le Scrope, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, as farmer of certain estates held by knight service of William, late earl of Stafford. It is interesting to note that he was also one of the distinguished panel of jurors present at the earl’s inquisition post mortem, which took place in Stafford somewhat belatedly, in 1399. Over the years, Wylaston witnessed a number of local deeds, including two for Edmund, 5th earl of Stafford.CFR, xi. 209; C136/107; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. viii (2), 46; Chetwynd mss, bdle. 7, no. 12; Staffs. RO, D593/A/2/27/11, D1721/1/1, ff. 46, 271-2. He was still alive in the spring of 1425, being then described as one of the surviving feoffees of property in Hoar Cross, Staffordshire, which he held jointly with one Thomas Wylaston, perhaps his son.Wm. Salt. Arch. Soc. xvii. 105.