URRY, Walter

More has been discovered about Urry’s family than was noted in the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 692-3. His brother John was a canon at Lincoln cathedral in the early 1430s, and Walter took on the executorship of his will in association with John Lyndefeld, the archdeacon of Chichester, and Richard Wakehurst†, the prominent Sussex lawyer who like Walter had been a retainer of the late Thomas Fitzalan, earl of Arundel. Proceedings in the court of common pleas in 1438, when these executors sued William Hore II* of Salisbury for a debt long owing to the deceased, also reveal that Wakehurst and the Urrys were kinsmen. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, i. 26; CP40/708, rot. 95d; 709, rot. 134d; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 731-2.

More too can be said about Urry’s important place in the administration of the Fitzalan estates after Earl Thomas’s death in 1415. Following the marriage of the widowed Countess Beatrice to John Holand, earl of Huntingdon, Urry was among several former Fitzalan retainers who henceforth received their annuities from Holand: in Urry’s case his annual fee of £10 was to be taken from the issues of the Sussex lordship of Lewes. E163/7/21, pt.2, no.30. Another dowager countess of Arundel, Eleanor, the widow of John, Lord Mautravers and de jure earl of Arundel (d.1421), took as her second husband Sir Richard Poynings*, the son and heir apparent of Robert, 4th Lord Poynings, and he too engaged Urry’s services, as a feoffee and more importantly as an executor. On making his will in 1428, while about to embark for France, Sir Richard bequeathed to him the sum of £5 and an annuity of £2 for life. Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica ed. Nichols, iii. 259-60; PCC 14 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 110v). Urry’s executorship of Poynings’ will was specifically mentioned in the pardon he obtained in July 1446: C67/39, m. 37; E159/223, brevia Mich. rot. 37d. Then, on 16 Dec. 1435, Urry’s presence was required at Chichester for the assignment of dower to Countess Maud, the widow of the recently-deceased Earl John, since he and John Bolney had been designated the ‘next friends’ of the earl’s son and heir Humphrey, a minor in the King’s wardship. CIPM, xxiv. 378. The Parliament summoned to meet on the previous 10 Oct., which Urry attended as a knight of the shire, was then still in progress. There had doubtless been much business to do with the inheritance of the infant Humphrey that needed to be dealt with at Westminster, and this had probably been a major factor in the election of Urry and John Bartelot* (who was also engaged in the administration of the earls’ estates). It was the only Parliament that either man attended as a representative for Sussex.

Sir Thomas Lewknor*, another member of the circle of the dowager countess Eleanor, employed Urry to help him perform his tasks as sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in both of the terms that he held the office. Urry took on the duties of under sheriff, and in addition appeared on Lewknor’s behalf as an attorney in the Exchequer, in 1426 and 1432 rendering account for the forfeiture of Scottish coins, prohibited by proclamation. E159/203, recorda, Mich. rot. 16d; 209, recorda Mich. rot. 26d. It was Lewknor’s stepson, the rising lawyer Thomas Hoo II*, who seized the opportunity for material advancement by marrying Urry’s only daughter, Alice, the heiress of the MP’s substantial estate. The match was made before Urry’s death.