ROGER, John II

John is first recorded in April 1451 as the recipient with his father of the goods and chattels of Stephen Staunford, a burgess of Southampton. In all probability he was still under age. CCR, 1454-61, p. 136. His elder brother Thomas, not much older than him, sat in the Parliament of 1453 as a shire knight for Berkshire, after an election which their father the sheriff, perhaps controversially, conducted at the family home at Lambourn, while successfully pursuing his own candidature for Hampshire. It is unclear how young John came to be elected for the Wiltshire borough of Ludgershall two years later, although family connexions dountless played their part. The Rogers were closely acquainted with the family of Sturmy, which had long held a prominent place in the town’s affairs, and at an unknown date both John and his father were enfeoffed by William Sturmy† of his land in Wiltshire. Significantly, ten days before the Parliament was due to assemble on 9 July 1455 Sturmy attended the baptism of John’s nephew (Thomas Roger’s son) at Speen parish church. Then, too, John’s father-in-law Sir John Lisle stood in high regard in the locality, as the hereditary warden of the nearby forest of Chute. It is doubtful that John was qualified for election by virtue of holding land in the immediate vicinity of Ludgershall, yet he was to die possessed of the manors of Bury Blunsdon and Paven Hill (in Purton), in the north of the county, which came to him from his mother’s family, the Shotesbrookes, and already had an interest in land at Bury Blunsdon, for in Hilary term 1456, while the Parliament was in session, he alleged in the common pleas that a local gentleman had assaulted his servant there, so that rents could not be collected from his tenants. CAD, i. B1778; C140/39/63; CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 627; CP40/780, rot. 258.

John’s marriage to Margery Lisle, and that of one of his sisters to her brother Nicholas, Sir John Lisle’s heir, linked the Rogers to one of the wealthiest families of the region. The precise terms of the settlements remain unclear, although John’s father placed his principal holdings in Hampshire (notably the manor of Freefolk and the advowson of the chapel there) in the hands of feoffees (including Lisle and other prominent local figures such as William Warbleton* and Thomas Uvedale*), to the end that after his death these should pass to the young couple and their issue – a transaction which was completed on 19 Jan. 1456 during the Parliament. Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C/586, 589-90. It looks as if it was then that they were also promised part of John’s mother’s own inheritance, including some of the former Shotesbrooke estates in Wiltshire. It is unclear to whom young John owed his appointment as constable of Winchester in November that year, although as Bishop Waynflete of Winchester had just been made chancellor perhaps local ties had something to do with his promotion, and again Lisle, who was on good terms with the bishop, may have spoken on his behalf. In becoming constable he ousted John Grenefeld II*, the clerk of the royal counting-house, but the latter was reinstated while Parliament was in session at Coventry in December 1459. John’s demotion followed hard upon the rout of the Yorkist forces at Ludford Bridge and the passing of Acts of Attainder, which inter alia made void all royal grants of office to any person who had taken up arms against the King on the fields of St. Albans, Blore Heath and Ludford. The close links of John’s father with the now attainted duke of York rendered him vulnerable to prosecution (and indeed he appeared on a list of those attainted made by a contemporary chronicler, who had perhaps copied the names from a draft bill of attainder). On 1 Jan. following, evidently as a desperate measure to protect his younger son’s interests from forfeiture, he conveyed to John and his heirs all his estate in Freefolk and Chalgrove, forgoing his own tenure for life. He also granted him a house in Southampton in the parish of St. Michael in Fishmarket Street, and made him a gift of all his goods and chattels in Hampshire. Ibid. 592; CPR, 1452-61, pp. 330, 570; CCR, 1454-61, p. 445; PROME, xii. 497. The older John Roger died shortly afterwards, perhaps as a consequence of a violent assault, and in the summer of 1460 many men from his estates in Berkshire were imprisoned in Wallingford castle gaol – chief among them his son and heir Thomas. Release came only after the Yorkists’ victory at Northampton in July, to be followed by Thomas’s election to a Parliament summoned by the new regime in October. Both brothers were appointed to commissions for the arrest of recalcitrants that winter, and after the accession of Edward IV John took a more prominent role in local government.

As has already been noted, John’s parents intended that he, rather than his elder brother, should inherit some of the former Shotesbrooke properties in Wiltshire, but in Trinity term 1467, after his mother died, his great-uncle, Sir Robert Shotesbrooke*, revived his claim in the court of common pleas that these, forming a sizable estate made up of eight messuages, five carucates of land and 40 acres of meadow in Purton, had been settled long before in tail-male and so belonged to him rather than to his niece’s descendants. John and his wife called to warranty his brother Thomas, who ratified their title, but Shotesbrooke then sued Thomas as tenant by the warranty. The case was adjourned, but if (as seems likely) the properties concerned were otherwise known as the manors of Bury Blunsdon and Paven Hill, then John remained in possession. CP40/824, rot. 359. Even so, his public career was concentrated in another county, Hampshire, where he officiated for three terms as sheriff and served several years on the bench. He was pricked as a juror at important treason trials held at Winchester in August 1466 and again in November 1475, when all those selected came from the leading gentry families. Roger purchased a royal pardon to cover any failings as former sheriff in May 1470, and there is nothing to suggest that he supported the government of the Readeption.

Following the death of his elder brother in 1471, John appeared at the Exchequer on three occasions (in January and December 1472 and October 1473) to stand surety for lessees of the family manors of Allington and Pymore, in Dorset, held by the Crown during the minority of Thomas’s son and heir, another Thomas. That these lessees included Thomas Hardegrave*, a family friend, indicates that he had been able to influence the choice of custodians of his nephew’s inheritance. Curiously, at his death John himself was said to be in possession not only of these manors but also the Staffordshire manors of Fenton Vivian and Standon, which all should have passed to his nephew when he came of age in 1476. Perhaps some financial arrangement had been reached between them. Cf. CPR, 1494-1509, p. 533; VCH Staffs. viii. 211. John attended the parliamentary elections held at Winchester castle in 1472, but is not known to have ever been elected as a shire knight himself. Nevertheless, his standing in the shire community rose higher when, in 1477, he was reappointed constable of Winchester, once more for life, albeit sharing the post with William Berkeley, an esquire for the King’s body. KB9/110/11; 314/86, 87; CPR, 1467-77, p. 208; 1477-85, p. 35; CFR, xxi. nos. 93, 149, 216; C219/17/2. Probably before this date he had completed an agreement with one of the most prominent of Hampshire families, that of Brocas of Beaurepaire, whereby his daughter Anne (b.c.1456), at that time his only child and heiress presumptive, was married to John, the son and heir of William Brocas (d.1484). M. Burrows, Fam. Brocas of Beaurepaire, 167-9.

Roger’s material circumstances changed markedly as a consequence of his own second marriage, to Anne, a niece of John Chedworth, the former bishop of Lincoln, Oxf. DNB, ‘Chedworth, John’. and widow of Sir John Crosby, the wealthy London grocer. In his will Crosby had left Anne £2,000 in ready money, together with all his gold and silver plate, all his clothes and jewels and the entire contents of his sumptuous and ‘verie large and beautifull’ mansion in the city’s Bishopsgate Street. Whether she ever took possession of Crosby’s manor at Hanworth in Middlesex as well is less certain; she was to have it for life if Sir John’s other goods sufficed to pay his debts, otherwise it was to be sold. Anne received the cash bequests in December 1476, and married John Roger before 14 July following, when, at the request of John Howard*, Lord Howard (Anne’s kinsman by marriage), her father William Chedworth and her new husband, the mayor and aldermen of London instructed Crosby’s executors to deliver to the commonalty the sum of £1,000, as the portion due to Crosby’s young son John (b.c.1472), an orphan of the City, to hold until he came of age. How long Roger and his wife continued to live at ‘Crosby Place’ is unclear, but in the spring of 1483 this mansion (described by Stow as ‘the highest at that time in London’) was used as a lodging by Richard, duke of Gloucester, at the critical stage of Edward V’s reign when he was Protector of the realm. P. Norman, Crosby Place (Surv. London mono. ix), 78-83; Cal. P. and M. London, 1458-82, pp. 107, 111; J. Stow, Surv. London ed. Kingsford, i. 172-3. On 5 June the young King included Roger among the esquires who, ‘by advice of the duke of Gloucester’, were told to prepare themselves to receive the order of knighthood at his coronation on the 22nd. BL Harl. MS. 433 ed. Horrox and Hammond, iii. 11. In the event, Edward was never crowned, and Roger was not knighted at Richard’s own coronation, which followed just two weeks afterwards. The fortunes of those who did accept this honour from Richard III proved to be mixed. Roger’s fellow constable of Winchester, William Berkeley, dubbed on that occasion, nevertheless took up arms against the new King that autumn under the banner of Duke Henry of Buckingham; while, by contrast, Roger convinced King Richard of his loyalty. Accordingly, he was appointed sheriff of Hampshire in Berkeley’s place, and retained as constable of Winchester. Roger was one of only two local men (the other being the mayor of Southampton) among the eight commissioners assigned in June 1484 to inspect the force of archers mustered at Southampton prior to embarkation for Brittany, under the command of Lord Grey of Powis. Roger took out a pardon at the end of his shrievalty in 1484: C67/52, m. 6. Even so, Roger was not so closely identified with Richard III as to suffer recriminations after his fall at Bosworth, and although the government of Henry VII removed him from the Hampshire bench in September 1485, he was reinstated after less than three months absence.

Roger died on 5 or 14 Mar. following. CIPM Hen. VII, i. 117; iii. 626-7, 1122. While ‘sumwhat vexid wt sikenesse’ he had made a will more than three years earlier, on 25 Nov. 1482, which reveals him to have been an intensely pious man, deeply concerned about gaining God’s forgiveness for his sins, and ready to spend extravagently to achieve that end. Although he lived at Freefolk he wished to be buried in Lambourn parish church in an ‘honest tombe of marble’ (costing up to 20 marks) set into the wall of St. Katherine’s chapel, next to that of his father, and near his first wife. The enormous sum of 200 marks was to be spent on his funeral, and his executors were instructed to ‘new pewe’ the chapel, ‘reforme’ its glass window and build a new oak ceiling at the cost of £40. The almsmen at Lambourn, clad in gowns and hoods of his livery, were each to receive 6s. 8d. to pray for his soul. He expressed his concern for his household servants by leaving them their wages for six months so that each of them ‘may the better provide hym silf a new maister’. Roger left two daughters to inherit his estate. He stipulated that Anne Brocas, his daughter by his first wife, should receive chattels worth no more than £40 because she had been otherwise preferred at the time of her marriage, but his younger daughter, Elizabeth (b.c.1478), was to have plate and goods to the value of 100 marks if she chose a husband with her mother’s guidance. As Elizabeth’s wardship and marriage ought to pertain to her mother, any wrongful attempts to claim her as the King’s ward should be firmly resisted, with any resulting legal costs to be paid out of her part of the inheritance. The testator’s sisters-in-law, Elizabeth and Joan Chedworth, were each to receive £30 towards their marriages. The will was proved on 29 Aug. 1486. PCC 24 Logge (PROB11/7, f. 181).

Long before he died Roger had conveyed a certain grove in ‘Scureswode’, which he had acquired jointly with his father in 1457, to Bishop Waynflete, as a donation towards the bishop’s foundation of Magdalen College, Oxford, Magdalen Coll. Oxf., Skyres deeds 91, 109, 112. and, more important, he had made enfeoffments of his estates in Dorset and Hampshire to the use of himself and his second wife. However, as he had feared, after the latter’s death on 5 June 1487, jurors at her inquisitions post mortem stated that these enfeoffments had been made in order to defraud the King of the wardship of Roger’s younger daughter. CIPM Hen. VII, i. 117, 339; iii. 626-7, 1122. His widow had made her will on 18 Dec. 1486, only a few months after his death and before she had time to complete her duties as his executrix. She asked to be buried in St. Helen’s church in Bishopsgate, next to her first husband Crosby, or else in the church of St. Dunstan in Stepney near the tomb of her brother, Master John Chedworth (d.1471), the former archdeacon of Lincoln. She left her son, John Crosby, when he reached the age of 24, money and household goods to the value of £300 over and above his late father’s bequests, together with a gold chain and cross garnished with pearls, worth £40, and to her daughter, Elizabeth Roger, items to the value of £100 on her marriage as well as specified pieces of jewelry. If either John Crosby or his half-sister Elizabeth were to die before they married, they were to be each other’s heir. Her executors included her mother, Joan Chedworth, in whose guardianship she left her children. PCC 3 Wattys (her brother’s will); 3 Milles (PROB11/8, f. 22).