THORNES, Richard

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 593.

There is a danger of conflating the career of the MP with a namesake who, like him, entered the service of the Beauforts. This other Richard Thornes was a professional soldier who served at Harfleur under Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter, in 1416, in the garrison at Pont de l’Arche in 1437, E101/47/39, m. 4; Add. Chs. 6913, 7989; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fr. 25773/1198. and, most importantly, as lieutenant of Rouen castle under Edmund Beaufort, earl of Dorset, for at least nine months from 1 Oct. 1439. He was put in charge of provisioning Dorset’s hôtel. M.K. Jones, ‘The Beaufort Fam. and the War in France, 1421-1450’ (Bristol Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1982), 120, 136, 324 (citing Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 26067/4056; pièces originales 1017/6; 2835/4). Contrary to the identification in the earlier biography, it is more likely to have been the namesake who took out letters of attorney for the conduct of his affairs in England while he was overseas in 1427. C76/109, m. 10.

The MP is not recorded for certain after 1432, when still engaged in shipping grain from Southampton to Bordeaux. CCR, 1429-35, p. 202.