ROKEBY, Sir Thomas

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 228-30.

Rokeby’s close connexion with Ralph, Lord Neville and (from 1397), earl of Westmorland, began earlier than allowed in the original biography. In March 1396, described as ‘our esquire’, he was named by Neville as his attorney in an important land transaction. E210/11151. The prior of Durham was another who employed his services, nominating him as his parliamentary proxy in the Parliament of 1406, of which Rokeby himself was a Member. SC10/42/2098.

The most curious aspect of Rokeby’s career is the near complete obscurity of its last years. Although he was alive as late as 1444, he took no recorded role in public affairs after his election to Parliament in 1423. Most of the later references to him relate to legal and financial difficulties. On 16 Oct. 1427, through his attorney John Cerf*, he successfully pleaded a pardon when the Exchequer pursued him for money he had allegedly collected as sheriff of Northumberland in respect of the 1404 subsidy and as sheriff of Yorkshire in respect of that of 1412. Later, in 1438, he was sued by the abbot of the monastery of St. Mary, York, for taking his goods worth £20 at Mortham. E159/204, brevia Mich. rot. 48d, recorda Mich. rots. 6, 12d; CP40/708, rot. 12d; 709, rot. 12. He last appears in the records on 14 Apr. 1444, when he had a papal licence for the celebration of mass in his oratory within his manor of Mortham. Yorks. Arch. Jnl. xxx. 81-82.

One of his sons, another Thomas Rokeby, served in the garrison at Caen under the duke of York in 1437 and then under Henry Percy, Lord Poynings, at Berwick in 1448. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fr. 25773/1192; C71/92, m. 5.