SCOTT, William III

The earliest evidence for Scott is a grant of 27 Nov. 1440, by which the Crown assigned to him and John Spore the profits of the shops which operated at the doors to Westminster Hall. It would appear that he had entered the royal service by that date, since the grant describes him as a ‘King’s servant’. CPR, 1436-41, p. 479. It is unlikely that he was the William Scot who, described as ‘of Hoo hundred, Sussex’, obtained a royal pardon in the aftermath of Cade’s rebellion: ibid. 1446-52, p. 371.

The circumstances of Scott’s return as a burgess for Rochester to the Parliament of 1455, and whether it was related to the disputed election of the knights of the shire (in which his stepfather (Sir) Gervase Clifton* was returned as MP in favour of Richard Culpepper‡) are unknown. Certainly, there is no evidence that he had any previous or subsequent connexions with the city. His fellow MP was John Soneman*, a lawyer with long-standing ties to the administration of Rochester bridge, of which his own eldest brother, Sir John Scott, was later an important patron. Upon their election, their sureties were two prominent citizens of Rochester, Robert Doget* and Thomas Cotyng*. C219/16/3.

Given the limited opportunities available to him, Scott appears to have found an outlet for his energies in a military capacity, perhaps with his stepfather, Clifton, who led several expeditions at sea and to Calais in the 1450s. In October 1457 he was commissioned to press mariners for service against the King’s enemies in a ship called Le Litell Trinite, and just over two years later he received a further commission directing him to arrest ships and other necessaries, so that he might go to sea with 200 men-at-arms to protect the fishing fleet of Winchelsea from the same enemies. The timing of this second commission, shortly after the flight of the Yorkist lords to Calais, coincided with others designed to restrict the ability of the earl of Warwick to operate from that port and suggests that Scott, perhaps out of loyalty owed to his stepfather Clifton, supported the Crown in this period. CPR, 1452-61, p. 566; R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 857. There is further evidence that Scott had Lancastrian sympathies from May 1460, when he and John Roger III* stood surety for Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke, and his father, Owen, in relation to grants to the Tudors of manors formerly belonging to the attainted duke of York and John, Lord Clinton. CFR, xix. 266-7.

Notwithstanding his apparent Lancastrian credentials, Scott appears not to have suffered any setbacks following the accession of Edward IV, no doubt because his eldest brother was one of the Yorkist King’s closest supporters. In June 1462 the new regime showed its willingness to trust him by appointing him as a commissioner to inquire into the widespread lands of the attainted Lord Hungerford. CPR, 1461-7, p. 203. By this stage of his career Scott had moved from his native county to Essex, perhaps after purchasing land there, and it was as ‘of Ongar’ that he had stood surety for the Tudors in 1460. It is likely that he had married by this period, although the circumstances of his match to Margery are unrecorded and her identity as a member of the Swinburne family depends solely on the veracity of an antiquarian description of a long lost monumental brass. Morant, i. 168.

In spite of taking up residence in Essex, Scott’s participation in local administration was limited to a single commission there in Richard III’s reign. By then he had become a landowner of some substance in the county, apparently with the help of his brother, Sir John Scott, and through dealings with Thomas Hoo II*, an influential lawyer with whom he had been acquainted for some time. Back in 1470, as ‘of Theydon Mount’, he had joined Hoo and the latter’s half-brother, John Lewknor*, in entering a bond with John Worsop*, as part of a series of transactions for the settlement of Hoo’s debts. CCR, 1468-76, nos. 648-50. Hoo was one of the chief councillors of the duke of Norfolk, whose portion of the manor of Woolston by Chigwell Scott acquired. By 1485 Scott had become lord of the whole of Woolston, a process involving complicated negotiations with Hoo and two other coparceners of the manor, George Neville, Lord Abergavenny, and Thomas Butler, earl of Ormond. Through the same negotiations, he also came by three other Essex manors in which Norfolk, Neville and Ormond had likewise held shares: Margaretting, Ovesham Hall in Matching and ‘Langtons’ in Little Canfield. VCH Essex, iv. 31; viii. 200; Essex RO, ct. roll, Woolston, 1483-1509, D/DEs M95; SP46/183/52; CAD, ii. C2032; Essex Feet of Fines, iv. 68. Family legend would incorrectly have it that Hen. VII granted Woolston to Scott in 1485, on the attainder of John Howard*, duke of Norfolk: J.R. Scott, Mems. Fam. of Scott, 130. These were not his only acquisitions in the county, for he acquired manors at Stapleford Tawney (bought from Clement Spice* between 1480 and 1483), Essex RO, memo. and extracts from recs. of Stapleford Tawney, D/DRg 1/115; VCH Essex, iv. 235. and Waltham Holy Cross as well. PCC 19 Dogett. It is unclear how he obtained the wherewithal to make these purchases, or why Ormond should have granted him (at some point before 1478) an annuity of 40s. for life. SP46/183/56. In 1483, just as Scott was finalizing his acquisition of Lord Abergavenny’s shares of the manors of Woolston, Ovesham Hall, ‘Langtons’ and Margaretting, he and his wife also obtained a grant for their lives from Neville of yet another Essex manor, Great Fordham. Essex Feet of Fines, iv. 83. Scott must have enjoyed a good relationship with both Abergavenny and Ormond, since in May 1485 they played a role in a settlement of Stapleford Tawney on him and his wife, with successive remainders in tail to the Scotts’ six sons and two daughters. CIPM Hen. VII, i. 779.

Following his purchase of Stapleford Tawney, the manor must have become Scott’s principal residence, since he sought burial in the parish church there in his will, made on 1 Nov. 1491 just two days before his death. He left bequests to the high altars of Stapleford Tawney and of three other Essex parish churches, Waltham Holy Cross, Theydon and Stanford Rivers. Among other provisions for the welfare of his soul, Scott sought masses for himself, for members of his family and for his benefactors during the lifetime of his widow, to whom he left most of his goods and chattels and a large amount of livestock at Stapleford Tawney. He also assigned sums of £40 to his daughter Joan and her husband Robert Fenne (probably a kinsman of Lord Abergavenny’s father-in-law Hugh atte Fenne*), and 120 marks to his second, unmarried daughter, Elizabeth, towards ‘hir preferment’. As for his lands, Scott made a complicated settlement, dividing them between five of his six sons and his son-in-law Fenne. He assigned his manors of Lydgate, Suffolk, and Waltham Holy Cross to his eldest son and heir, John; those of Stapleford Tawney and Ovesham Hall to his second son, William; that of ‘Langtons’ to his third son, Edward; that of Margaretting to his fourth, another John; and that of Woolston, the second most valuable of his manors, to his fifth, George. For his youngest son Hugh, he assigned to him and his heirs an annuity of £10 charged upon Woolston, and for Robert Fenne lands in Enfield, Middlesex. All these provisions were, however, made on the basis that the widowed Margery would enjoy the entire profits and issues of these properties for a year after the testator’s decease. Quite why Scott decided to settle his lands in this way is unclear, since his heir was left with less valuable holdings than his two younger brothers, William and George. He appointed Margery executor of the will, which was witnessed by three of his six sons and Robert Fenne. Ibid.; PCC 19 Dogett. Margery outlived Scott by almost 14 years, dying on 14 Oct. 1505. She was buried beside him in Stapleford Tawney where a brass to their memory exists on the floor of the chancel. Morant, i. 168; VCH Essex, iv. 237.