Born as a younger son to one of the wealthiest knights in southern England, Stafford led a career typical of a man of his standing. Like many of his peers, he sought his fortune on the battlefields of France and in the summer of 1432 indented to fight abroad with a retinue of 30 men-at-arms and 150 archers.
While still serving as sheriff in Gloucestershire, Stafford had been elected to his only Parliament as knight of the shire for Dorset. Although technically barred from sitting in the Commons at the time of his election, by virtue of his office, he could nevertheless claim not to be in breach of any statute, for he had neither returned himself, nor would he still be a serving sheriff when Parliament was due to assemble on 12 Nov. The opening sermon was given by the chancellor – Stafford’s uncle of the half-blood, John Stafford, bishop of Bath and Wells, whom he was currently serving as steward of the episcopal estates.
More important in the long run was the marriage which Stafford’s father had contracted for him in 1437: his bride was one of the daughters and eventual heiresses of the wealthy Sir John Chideock.
Stafford’s relations with his kinsmen by marriage were not, however, always without tension. His elder brother, Sir Richard, had died young, leaving a single daughter, Avice, who married Sir James Butler, the son and heir-apparent of the earl of Ormond.
It is possible that the drawn-out quarrel with his niece’s husband took its toll on Stafford’s finances, for four years later he sought to avail himself of the statutory provisions promising financial reward to informers, by bringing a suit against the unscrupulous lawyer Thomas Tropenell*. He accused Tropenell of arranging for the bribing of a jury by Robert Hungerford, Lord Moleyns. The staggering sums which Moleyns was said to have paid (amounting in total to more than £110) suggest that the charges were probably trumped up, but the defendants’ agreement to negotiate may indicate that there was at least some truth in the matter.
Although after the death of Sir Humphrey Stafford substantial parts of the family estates had passed by marriage to Sir James Butler (created earl of Wiltshire in 1449), Sir Humphrey had not neglected his only surviving son, William, to whom he bequeathed quantities of valuable plate. In addition, it was then, in the early 1440s, that William acquired the Stafford manors of Lutterley in Staffordshire, and Chelmarsh, Quatte and Lyehall in Shropshire, as well as other holdings in Oxfordshire, Middlesex and London, and more of the Stafford estates descended in tail-male.
Also in 1449 occurred an episode in Stafford’s career that to date remains unexplained. According to a later copy, a list of the peers attending the Parliament of February 1449 recorded the presence of a ‘Lord Southwick’, a title derived from one of the Stafford family estates. If a Lord Southwick had indeed been summoned to the assembly, perhaps by verbal command or by a now lost writ issued after the opening of Parliament, William Stafford would appear to have been the most likely candidate, especially as in 1461 his son Humphrey would be summoned to Parliament by Edward IV as Lord Stafford of Southwick and without any formal creation – a circumstance which suggests hereditary succession. However, neither the rolls of Parliaments of February and November 1449 nor the writs on the close rolls record a summons to any peer of such title. Moreover, contemporary chronicles and official records of the following year all style Stafford merely as an esquire, suggesting that if any such creation had been intended it was never put into effect.
Whatever the truth of this matter, Stafford’s fortunes improved dramatically when Sir John Chideock died in March 1450. Chideock had no male heir, so his lands were divided equally between his two daughters, Stafford’s wife Katherine and her sister Margaret, the wife of William Stourton*. Royal writs ordering the transfer of the estate to the heirs and the assignment of dower to Sir John’s widow were swiftly issued, and Stafford looked ready to settle down to enjoy his wife’s inheritance, when southern England was suddenly in uproar.
Stafford’s heir, Humphrey, was aged only ten at the time of his death, and the wardship of his estates (including the manors of Southwick in Wiltshire, Compton Dundon, Marston, Great Elm, Chiselborough, Puriton and West Chinnock in Somerset, Powerstock, Frome Vauchurch, Southwell, Winterbourne, Farnham, Gussage and Milborne in Dorset), escheated to the Crown. Yet barely three days elapsed before on 21 June both wardship and the heir’s marriage were entrusted to Archbishop Stafford, Lord Bonville and William Stafford’s widow Katherine, on terms to be agreed later. No doubt these proved favourable. Stafford’s widow went on to remarry twice, first the Cornish landowner John Arundell of Lanherne, and later the Sussex knight (Sir) Roger Lewknor*. For several years she and Arundell were embroiled in litigation with Stafford’s feoffees over her dower lands, until a settlement was reached in the summer of 1458.