RESTWOLD, Richard

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 199-201.

Restwold received fees as an esquire of the hall and chamber of Henry VI from 1438 or earlier, E101/408/25, f. 7; 409/9, f. 37; 11, f. 38v; 16; 410/1, f. 30; 3; 6, f. 40. while William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, was steward of the Household, but ceased to do so after Suffolk’s fall in 1450. E101/410/6.

More information has come to light about Restwold’s connexion with other magnates. In the record of a plea for trespass he brought in the King’s bench in Michaelmas term 1441, against Thomas Hilton, a ‘gentleman’ from Westmorland, he was described as a servant of the chancellor, John Stafford, bishop of Bath and Wells, CP40/723, rot. 135d. His dispute with Hilton concerned their mutual interests at Hilton or Helton Bacon: Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. xxii. 339. although in what capacity he had entered Stafford’s service is not revealed. The earlier biography stated that in 1446 Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, enfeoffed Restwold of the manor of Garsington in Oxfordshire. In fact, Garsington had been inherited by Alice Chaucer, the countess of Suffolk, and the conveyance of 1446 was doubtless made in her interest, with Restwold acting on her behalf. Yet he did have links with Earl Richard, who had earlier assigned him a fee of 20s. p.a. as keeper of one of his parks, and, more important, he later joined the earl and his sons Richard, earl of Warwick, and Sir Thomas Neville, along with others of their affinity, in a series of bonds entered to Ralph, Lord Cromwell. The bonds, in £1,800, were to be paid in seven instalments beginning at Christmas 1453, and were clearly associated with the arrangements for the marriage of Sir Thomas Neville to Crowmwell’s niece. CP25(1)/191/28/24; SC6/1122/3, m. 4; Magdalen Coll. Oxf., Misc. 303.

Although the focus of Restwold’s career lay in the Thames valley, he did not neglect his landed interests in the north-west. In the early 1440s he was involved in a dispute with the Westmorland knight Sir Henry Threlkeld* over property at Tebay and Borrowdale Head, a few miles south of Threlkeld’s home at Crosby Ravensworth. He alleged that Sir Henry and 21 of his men had stolen from him timber and underwood worth £20. KB27/727, rot. 56. However, for a wife for his son and heir apparent, Thomas, he looked elsewhere, to Leicestershire. Thomas was married before September 1455 to Margaret, one of the three daughters and coheirs of John Boyville* of that county. The marriage may have been arranged by the bride’s half-brother Edward Langford*, a Berkshire neighbour of the Restwolds, and a former colleague of the MP in the royal household. Restwold settled on the couple his Wiltshire manor of Heale in Woodford. E326/8348.