RYMAN, William

As the earlier biography makes clear, The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 268-70. Ryman’s life was devoted to the service of Thomas Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, and after the earl’s death in 1415 to arranging the settlement of his estates between his sisters and their descendants. He lent his support too to the earl’s heir-male, John Arundel, Lord Mautravers (d.1421), by acting as his feoffee and, more importantly, as the custodian of his inheritance during the minority of his son John, the young earl of Arundel. What was not previously known was that Mautravers named Ryman as one of his executors. The records of the court of common pleas reveal that in 1425 Ryman assisted the widowed Lady Eleanor, by then married to Sir Richard Poynings*, in the difficult task of satisfying the testator’s creditors. CP40/658, rot. 311.

At the same time Ryman was kept busy dealing with the claimants to Earl Thomas’s widespread estates, who included Fitzalan’s nephew John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk (d.1432). In return for the sum of £400 he conveyed to the duke the manor of Kenninghall in Norfolk, and also made a ‘bargayn’ with him whereby Mowbray would receive other lands in fee simple on payment of 200 marks. These sums had still not been paid in full by February 1431, whereupon the duke’s general attorneys instructed that Ryman be given £244 6s. 8d. from the issues of his estate at Bosham (close to Ryman’s home). At an unknown date before Michaelmas 1439 Ryman succeeded John Ledes* as steward of this same estate, at an annual fee of five marks. Bosham Acc. 939/II/A17, 18. Presumably he owed this appointment to Duke John’s successor.