ST. LOE, John

The principal line of the family of St. Loe had ended with the death in 1375 of Sir John St. Loe† of Newton St. Loe, Somerset, who by his first wife, Alice, the coheiress of the Pavelys of Westbury and Brooke in Wiltshire, left two daughters (one of whom took her inheritance to the Chideocks, the other to the Seymours), and by his second wife, Margaret (d.1412), another daughter, Elizabeth, who married Lord Botreaux. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 564; CPR, 1413-16, p. 34; CCR, 1409-13, p. 262; CIPM, xviii. 1146; xix. 929, 935, 957-60; VCH Wilts. viii. 136, 149. The precise relationship between that senior branch and our MP is difficult to determine; indeed, it had been forgotten by the time of the Tudor antiquary John Leland. Leland called Sir John ‘the last Lord St. Loe’, and thought that the junior branch acquired a ‘good peace’ of its lands through marriage to an heiress from the de la River family. Yet as this was a marriage contracted by our MP’s grandson it cannot have affected his own material circumstances. J. Leland, Itin. ed. Toulmin Smith, v. 103.

John, probably a native of Somerset, lived a few miles to the south of Bristol, where by 1412 he was in possession of the manors of Walley and ‘Bynccheustoke’ (Chew Stoke), valued for the purposes of taxation at £20 p.a. Feudal Aids, vi. 512. How he had acquired them is not known, although it may have been through his marriage. On 14 Oct. that same year Bishop Bubwith of Bath and Wells granted a licence for St. Loe and his (unnamed) wife to have mass celebrated in the oratory at their house at Chew Stoke, a licence he confirmed early in 1414. Reg. Bubwith, i. 130, 169. The tax assessments of 1428 show that other of St. Loe’s landed holdings in Somerset were situated at Mourton, Knighton Sutton and Lovington, and two years later he arranged for the manor of Knighton Sutton to be entailed with other properties on him and his wife and their issue. Feudal Aids, iv. 374, 379, 384; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 76. St. Loe presented a new rector for the parish church of Chew Stoke in 1439, Reg. Stafford, ii (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxii), 240. and the advowson of the church, along with 20 messuages, two tofts and some 840 acres of land in the neighbourhood were subsequently settled, in 1444, in tail on him and Alice for term of their lives, with remainder to their son Nicholas and his wife and their issue. Som. Feet of Fines, 106. Other properties acquired by St. Loe with a particular body of co-feoffees in the years 1437-9 (a moiety of the manor of Batheaston, bought from Alexander Anne* and his wife, and land in Bishopsworth, Filton and Ashton by Bristol) may not have come permanently into his family’s possession. Ibid. 93, 94, 96-97; CP40/710, cart. rot. Nor, in all probability, did he possess all of the estates in Somerset which by the end of the century were occupied by his grandson and valued at £93 p.a. CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 189. By then the St. Loes had adopted Knighton Sutton as their principal place of residence.

St. Loe’s public career began in the service of Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, from whom he received an annuity charged on the episcopal estates in Somerset. Such was his respect for Beaufort that at the end of his life he was to bequeath a silver cup to Keynsham abbey so that every monk there would link him and Beaufort together when offering prayers for their souls. G.L. Harriss, Cardinal Beaufort, 67, 362; Lambeth Palace Lib., Reg. Stafford, f. 163 (printed in Som. Med. Wills 1501-30 (Som. Rec. Soc. xix), 346-7). On three occasions, in November 1413 and November 1415, he stood surety for the bishop at the Exchequer. CFR, xiv. 42, 59, 131. Yet before too long he moved from Beaufort’s immediate entourage to the Household of the bishop’s nephew Henry V, and on 8 Feb. 1416 the King granted him, as his esquire, an annuity of £20 levied on the issues of Wiltshire. CPR, 1413-16, p. 394. No evidence has been found to show that St. Loe had fought on the Normandy campaign of the previous year, which had culminated with the triumph at Agincourt, although this is the most likely explanation for his reward. When, in the following May, the King was planning a three-month naval campaign against the French, which he initially intended to lead in person, St. Loe was among those recruited to join the substantial force. This eventually set sail in August and under the command of the King’s brother John, duke of Bedford, won a significant victory at the mouth of the Seine. A. Curry, ‘After Agincourt’, The Fifteenth Century VII, ed. Clark, 50; E101/48/10/54; 70/1/560. Less than a year later, in July 1417, St. Loe mustered with a contingent of three archers at Portsdown to take part in the large-scale invasion of Normandy led by the King, E101/51/2. and he then spent some time overseas serving in the English army of conquest. Further rewards for his military activities came in December 1421, when, again as the ‘King’s esquire and servant’ he was granted a second annuity of £20, this one charged on the customs collected in the port of London. CPR, 1416-22, p. 409.

Following Henry V’s death, St. Loe continued to be engaged in warfare. In February 1423, having obtained confirmation from Henry VI’s council of his first annuity (of 1416), he took out letters of protection as about to sail to France once more; CPR, 1422-9, p. 94; DKR, xlviii. 222. he contracted to serve for a year as captain of the garrison of Torcy in May 1424, and when that term ended he joined the retinue of the Regent, the duke of Bedford. While still abroad in 1425 he and his wife petitioned the pope for a licence to worship at their own portable altar while travelling away from home. CPL, vii. 417. From February 1427 St. Loe was attached to the force under the command of Sir Thomas Beaumont, DKR, xlviii. 236, 246. but a year later his career changed course, shifting from the military sphere in France to that of the young Henry VI’s household at home in England.

In May 1428 the Council of the minority nominated four knights and four esquires to assist Henry VI’s ‘master’ Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and stay in constant attendance on the monarch. St. Loe was singled out to join William Fitzharry, Thomas Bolde and John Chetwynd as the four esquires so named. How he had come to be chosen for this role can only be guessed; perhaps his former lord Cardinal Beaufort had something to do with it. Whatever the reason, he was to remain an esquire for the King’s body (even though his three companions changed in the course of time) until his death 20 years later. PPC, iii. 294; E101/409/9, f. 36d; 11, f. 38; 16; 410/1. In July the Council authorized the re-granting of his second annuity of £20, charged on the customs at London (which had not been paid since Henry V’s death), thus restoring his income from annuities to £40, CPR, 1422-9, p. 480; E159/205, brevia Hil. rot. 16d. and in addition the following February the four esquires were each rewarded with stipends of 50 marks p.a. payable at the Exchequer. CPR, 1422-9, pp. 531, 538-9. Naturally, St. Loe and his fellows were provided with special robes to wear at the King’s coronation at Westminster in November 1429, and early in the next year the four of them contracted to cross to France for Henry’s coronation in his other realm. They were to be absent from home attending on the King from the spring of 1430 for almost two years. E361/6, rot. 19d; E101/70/5/687; E404/46/238; E403/695, m. 5; DKR, xlviii. 271, 272.

On the return of the royal entourage to England in 1432, this esquire for the King’s body began to be assigned to offices of local government: he was appointed sheriff of Somerset and Dorset that autumn and again in 1436. During his second term, in January 1437, he was granted, initially during royal pleasure and then for life, the constableship of the Welsh castle of Rhuddlan, with an annual fee of £40 to add to his annuities of £113 6s. 8d. CPR, 1436-41, pp. 33, 46. He was well placed to take advantage of royal patronage as the King after attaining his majority began to make lavish grants to his favoured retainers, especially to those whom he saw on a daily basis. Thus, in May 1437 St. Loe obtained at the Exchequer a lease of the manors of Great and Little Ogbourne (pertaining to the former priories of Ogbourne St. George and St. Andrew), previously held by the duke of Bedford, which by surrendering his annuity of 50 marks he converted to a life-tenancy just four months later. A reversionary interest in the estate, initially granted to the university at Cambridge, was to be included in Henry VI’s foundation of the college of St. Nicholas (later King’s College). CFR, xvi. 333; CPR, 1436-41, pp. 92, 126-7, 195, 259, 296, 521-3; VCH Wilts. xii. 142. St. Loe was still in possession of Ogbourne in 1445-6: E13/144, rot. 1; C143/450/28. St. Loe’s principal associates during the 1430s and 1440s were his fellow members of the Household, such as Sir John Styward, the master of the King’s horses, and in January 1439 he shared with other royal servants a ship called La Trinite of Bristol, which had been forfeited to the Crown. CFR, xvii. 43; CPR, 1436-41, p. 236; 1441-6, p. 39. Four months later he was given for life the constableship of Bristol castle, along with the keeping of the royal forests of Kingswood, Filwode and Gillingham, with a fee of £20 p.a. besides other payments for the wages of his officers, although he did relinquish his office at Rhuddlan. CPR, 1436-41, pp. 257, 284. Since neither of these posts as constable, at Rhuddlan and Bristol, were compatible with the requirement for him to be constantly in attendance on the King, it must be assumed that his duties had to be carried out by deputies.

St. Loe chose to remain an esquire rather than take up the honour of knighthood: together with his fellow esquires for the body (now James Fiennes*, John Hampton II* and Edward Hull*), in 1439 he was specifically exonerated from the fines levied throughout the realm on those who similarly refused to do so. E159/215, recorda Trin. rot. 21d; 216, recorda Mich. rot. 26. The difficulties he encountered over receiving payment of his fees as constable of Bristol and keeper of the forests were satisfactorily resolved by the decision that he might subtract them at source from the issues of Wiltshire which he, as sheriff in 1439-40, collected directly, and during his shrievalty these offices were granted to him jointly with his son Nicholas to hold in survivorship. St. Loe’s annuity from the port of London was also confirmed to him for life, and other marks of favour from the King included a gift of a tun of Gascon wine every year, while in 1442 he and Sir Edmund Hungerford*, the King’s carver, were committed the farm of the manor, town and barton of Gillingham. E404/56/139; CPR, 1436-41, pp. 366, 387; 1441-6, p. 7; CFR, xvii. 210.

The hegemony of the Household over the shire administration in England in the 1440s was to a lesser extent paralleled by appointments to office in Guyenne. In March 1442 St. Loe and the London merchant Stephen Forster received the prévôté of Bayonne, where Forster had already established contacts with the mercantile community. Whether it was ever intended that St. Loe himself should sail to that part of France to exercise his office is less certain, although when on 13 Mar. 1443 the Council was preoccupied with the need to victual Bayonne he did go to Bristol to raise an aid, and within ten days the Katherine of Bristol had been loaded with wheat to be despatched to the town. C61/131, m. 3; Vale, 117-18, 127; PPC, v. 244. On 28 June 1444 he and Forster were granted their Bayonne offices for the lengthy term of 60 years, during which they and their assigns were to receive all the customs, fees and rents there, without paying any taxes or dues to royal officers in Aquitaine. St. Loe subsequently went into business with Forster, the two of them importing luxury goods such as pepper, raw silk, sugar and cloves, which arrived in London on Venetian galleys. CCR, 1447-54, p. 73; Cal. P. and M. London,1437-57, pp. 83-84. St. Loe also traded in Bristol, where he sold merchandise at the staple: C241/232/18. Forster stood surety for St. Loe when he was given the farm of estates in Somerset, as also did John Trevelyan* and John Dauntsey*, his fellow members of the Household. CFR, xvii. 271-2, 278, 298. Dauntsey acted as a feoffee for him in 1444, and their friendship was such that St. Loe left him £20 in his will: Som. Feet of Fines, 106; Reg. Stafford, f. 163. Another close colleague was John Norris* (an esquire for the body from 1441), for whom he agreed to act as an arbiter in a dispute and a feoffee of property in Berkshire. Notts. Archs., Portland mss, deeds and estate pprs. 157 DD/P/6/1/1/25; CP25(1)/13/85/6, 7; CCR, 1441-7, p. 496.

A strong sign of St. Loe’s continuing influence over the King was the grant to him in tail of his offices at Bristol and in the royal forests made in January 1443, with additional grants of pannage, herbage, underwood, timber, and all fines and amercements levied there, to hold rent-free and by fealty alone. Henry VI was alienating his crown lands to the principal members of his Household at an unprecedented rate, and St. Loe took his share of the bounty. E28/75/7; CPR, 1441-6, p. 142; B.P. Wolffe, R. Demesne, 110, 280. His proximity to the King was also reflected in his nomination with a number of colleagues as feoffees of the estates of the duchy of Lancaster to the uses of the King’s will. PROME, xi. 404-10. Henry’s readiness to forgive his household servants the offences and misdemeanours which ordinarily would have brought them to the law-courts was as ill-considered as his prodigality, but it too worked to St. Loe’s advantage. Thus, on 5 Feb. 1446, he was pardoned a series of offences which included the illegal giving of livery, and this favour was coupled with two general pardons, which exonerated him from wastes committed by his default when sheriff. CPR, 1441-6, p. 408; C67/39, m. 9; CIMisc. viii. 176. Three months later, in June, he was granted the office of steward of the great court of Bristol during the minority of the duke of Warwick’s daughter and heir, and he was also promised the manor and hundred of the barton of Bristol after the death of the duke of Gloucester. CPR, 1441-6, pp. 391, 434.

Another sign of St. Loe’s influence at court came in July 1446, when he obtained a royal licence to found a chantry in the church of St. Mary at Calne, Wiltshire, endowed with lands worth ten marks a year. These lands were situated in Calne, Stock, Stockley and Devizes, although how he had acquired them is unclear. The chantry chaplain was to celebrate divine service for the King and queen and 27 named individuals and their souls after death, as well as praying for others, including St. Loe’s wife, who had already died. The formalities were not completed until May 1447, after St. Loe had represented Wiltshire in the Parliament which met briefly at Bury St. Edmunds earlier that year. CPR, 1441-6, p. 459; 1446-52, p. 61; C143/450/28. Besides the lands in the county he set aside for his chantry, St. Loe held the estate at Ogbourne and he had no doubt become quite well known in Wiltshire during his shrievalty. Even so, he belonged more to the gentry of the neighbouring county of Somerset than to Wiltshire, His son Nicholas attested the Som. elections to the Parl., witnessing the return of their fellow household man Sir Edward Hull. and his election at Wilton probably owed everything to his place in the Household. It is worthy of note that among the 42 attestors of the parliamentary indenture were the treasurer of the Household (Sir) John Stourton II* and the King’s carver Sir Edmund Hungerford, and that they chose as St. Loe’s companion in the Commons another of the carvers, Sir William Beauchamp*. Both men entered the Lower House for the first and only time. The Parliament had been summoned to Bury on 10 Feb. primarily to bring the duke of Gloucester to task: he was arrested on his entry to the town, and died while in custody. It is unlikely that St. Loe himself played any part in Gloucester’s downfall. He was never on particularly close terms with the duke’s principal opponent William de la Pole, marquess of Suffolk, nor beholden to de la Pole for his position as an esquire for the body or for any of his grants from the King. Unlike Suffolk’s friends he did not benefit directly from Duke Humphrey’s death.

Following his only appearance in the Commons, in May 1447 St. Loe was associated with the chamberlain of the Household, Viscount Beaumont, in receiving a quitclaim by Thomas Astley* of lands in Leicestershire. CCR, 1441-7, p. 474; 1447-54, p. 17. The Parliament had been presented with detailed financial statements to reinforce the urgent need for strict measures introduced by the treasurer Bishop Lumley to combat the crisis at the Exchequer. These measures had included a wholesale change of customs officials to invalidate tallies assigned on the customs revenues. This affected St. Loe, who was encountering difficulties in obtaining payments of sums due to him for victuals purchased for the Household and for repayment of loans he had advanced. Yet unlike many of the Crown’s creditors, his privileged position close to the King enabled him in July to obtain a warrant instructing the Exchequer to replace his invalidated tallies with others most expedient to him, and according him the preference enjoyed by the treasurer of the Household, notwithstanding Lumley’s ordinances. E404/63/119.

St. Loe had been present at the chapter house at Wells with Bishop Stafford and other dignitaries in April 1441 to witness the abjuration of the lollard John Jurdan of Bristol of all his heresies, Reg. Stafford, ii (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxii), 266-7. and as the foundation of the chantry at Calne makes clear he adhered to firmly orthodox opinions when it came to religion. The proctors of the chantry received £20 under the terms of the will he made on 26 Feb. 1448, while a number of his bequests were destined for other ecclesiastical institutions. For works on the north side of the parish church of Chew Magna, where he wished to be buried, he left £16 13s. (or more if necessary, at the discretion of his executors); other churches and clergy received a total of £33 6s. 4d., and every priest present at his exequies 1s. Prayers for his soul’s welfare were to be offered at Bath priory in return for a bequest of silver vessels; and as much as £73 13s. 4d. was set aside for the stipends of two priests to celebrate masses in the churches of Chew and Sutton for the souls of the testator, his late wife and their children. St. Loe’s wealth is also evident from bequests amounting to £112 8s. 4d. to named individuals, the gift of £10 to each of his four executors, and the enormous sum of £100 provided for repairs to the King’s highway known as ‘Henlake’ and other roads. Furthermore, this same amount of £100 was to be handed out in doles to friars and others attending his burial. Reg. Stafford, f. 163. St. Loe died a few days later on 12 Mar., and the will was proved on 30 Apr. Inquisitions post mortem were mainly concerned with his offices as constable of Bristol and keeper of the royal forests, which passed in accordance with the letters patent to his son Nicholas. The entails made earlier ensured that Nicholas and his wife Agnes (both of whom were St. Loe’s executors) succeeded to the manors of Chew and Walley. C139/131/25.

The heir’s marriage had probably been arranged by his father in the knowledge that Agnes, as one of the two daughters of John Austell* by his first wife, would share with her sister certain of the lands of their mother, Margaret Fitzpayn, and would also inherit part of the estate of their kinsman Sir William Palton* (d.1450). VCH Som. iii. 102. Nicholas took seisin of his patrimony in September 1448. After his father had introduced him to the Household, he had risen to be marshal of the King’s hall, CPR, 1446-52, p. 151; CFR, xviii. 109. but he could never replace his father in the King’s affections, and was soon persuaded to part with the keepership of Gillingham park and forest so that the earl of Wiltshire might have it. CPR, 1446-52, p. 242. As son and executor of John St. Loe he took out pardons in 1455 and 1456. C67/41, mm. 6, 23. Knighted before July 1471, perhaps during the Readeption, Sir Nicholas died on 3 June 1486, leaving a son, Sir John, to inherit the family estates. CPR, 1467-77, p. 264; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 85, 87. Sir John died in 1499: Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xvi), 373-4; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 189. He had arranged for his son Nicholas to marry Eleanor, da. of Sir Thomas Arundell (d.1485): Portland mss, 157 DD/P/117/1; CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 563.