SHERMAN, Roger

Roger’s father William took a leading role in the government of New Windsor in the first half of the fifteenth century, by serving as bailiff in 1412 and steward of the merchant guild (later known as mayor) for eight annual terms between 1417 and 1446. In addition he was appointed by the Crown to collect parliamentary subsidies in Berkshire in 1434 and 1440. St. George’s recs. XV 45/44, 75, 100, 104, 109, 125, 150; Berks. Arch. Jnl. lxv. 37-38. As their name implies, and as they were often described, both father and son were ‘shermen’ (cloth-workers), by occupation, but Roger was also sometimes called ‘husbandman’ or ‘yeoman’. He derived an income from farming arable land in the Thames valley, such as the fields at Bray, up-river from Windsor, which his first wife held jointly with her three siblings. Eton Coll. Archs. C 2/239; Bledlow deeds, 64. In Windsor itself Roger owned a house off the High Street, and in July 1443 he leased from John Pury* an adjacent building and garden pertaining to the manor of Le Mote, which soon afterwards Pury donated to the King for his endowment of Eton College. Ibid. Windsor deeds, 776. Together with his father in August 1445 Roger conveyed land in Datchet to Robert and Agnes Whyttele, St. George’s recs. XV 58 B 21. while other holdings in Datchet and at Sutton and Iver, in which his father had once had a fiduciary interest, came to him and his second wife (perhaps a kinswoman of the previous owners, William Fisher and his son Robert). However, after these particular lands had been in his possession for about 12 years, he first mortgaged and then sold them. In a complicated arrangement made in October 1460 he acknowledged receipt of 12 marks from David Selly and William Est, promising that if he failed to pay them back this sum at the following Whitsun the lands would be theirs in return for an additional payment of 11 marks. Furthermore, he agreed that as soon as he recovered at law a further nine acres, he could convey them to Selly and Est too. CAD, i. A668, 675, 678, 680. He had earlier, in Feb. 1453, entered recognizances to Selly in £40: CCR, 1447-54, p. 420. In addition, in the 1450s he leased various plots of land from the authorities at Windsor castle, including two acres of meadow in Windsor as the sole tenant and a further eight acres which he farmed in association with others, including a relation named Alice Sherman. SC6/755/19, f. 8; 20, f. 7v.

Sherman regularly witnessed deeds at Windsor from the late 1430s for the next two decades. St George’s recs. XV 45/147, 157, 166, 171, 191, 198, 202; CCR, 1447-54, p. 42. Although he did not equal his father’s record of service to the borough, he did hold office as a bailiff for six terms and as mayor for one, and his standing there is evident from a suit enrolled in the court of common pleas in 1439. In Michaelmas term that year the prior of Merton brought an action against the mayor and eight named townsmen of Windsor, headed by William Hunt and his son Roger, for forcibly preventing the priory’s steward Thomas Haydock* from holding a court of frankpledge in the town as the priory’s officers had done from time immemorial. Their action followed hard upon Henry VI’s grant of a charter in May that year, which stated inter alia that no strangers to Windsor would be permitted to hold such courts there in future. CP40/715, rot. 526d; 718, rots. 537-9; CChR, vi. 5-6. Roger’s election to four of the five Parliaments summoned between 1447 and 1453 is a measure of the high regard in which he was held by his fellow burgesses. Although New Windsor had been regularly represented in Parliament in the early fourteenth century, the election of 1447 came after a hiatus of over 110 years, and marked the borough’s changed status following the granting of its charter of 1439 and the King’s endowment of Eton College. Sherman’s second return, to the Parliament of February 1449, took place while he was bailiff; and ex officio he himself conducted the elections to the Parliament which assembled in November that year. C219/15/7.

In the course of his career, Sherman was named on several occasions as a defendant in lawsuits brought in the court of common pleas. In the Michaelmas term 1439, described as a yeoman, he was sued by Peter Fettiplace* and others for breaking into their closes at New Windsor. Perhaps he had done so in his official capacity as bailiff. Similarly, albeit much more seriously, 14 years later (during his fourth Parliament), the influential courtier John Norris* sued him and William Towe* (his fellow bailiff of 1440 and companion in the Parliament of February 1449) for failing to pay him as much as 200 marks. Perhaps this substantial sum was due from Sherman and Towe in an official capacity for works at Windsor castle, or had something to do with the borough’s fee farm. Also in the Trinity term of 1453, Edmund Rede* brought a plea of debt against Sherman and two local tradesmen for a debt of £10. CP40/715, rot. 400; 770, rots. 3d, 88d.

Sherman clearly did not lack influence in the locality. At an unknown date a petition was sent to the chancellor from one William Archer, who alleged that the MP had begun a false action of account against him before the constable of the castle, and then, claiming he could not be contented in that court, had discontinued the action, and begun another before the mayor and bailiffs of New Windsor. Archer had twice been arrested, and feared that by ‘grete imbracyng and mayntenaunce’ Sherman would have him condemned unless the chancellor showed him good lordship. C1/31/423. Sherman had close dealings with Thomas Manning, the dean of St. George’s chapel, Windsor, who authorized him in May 1457 to receive on his behalf certain goods and chattels; and in 1458 he conveyed to Manning and Master John Rokes a tenement and garden in the High Street next to The Bell – perhaps the same property as he had earlier leased from John Pury. St. George’s recs. I F 12; XV 45/169, 211. He is not recorded after his mayoralty of 1463-4. Although his name was unusual, there are no strong reasons to believe that he was Roger Sherman the ‘waterman’ who was pardoned on 23 Mar. 1460 for all treasons, felonies, murders and trespasses committed before 12 Feb. that year: CPR, 1452-61, p. 552. Thomas Sherman alias Brown, one of the bailiffs of New Windsor in 1455-7 and 1465-6, may have been his son. St. George’s recs. XV 45/204, 206; Berks. Arch. Jnl. lxv. 38-39.