VESKE, John

The Veske family had been freeholders on the manor of Wiston (a mile or so from Steyning) since the mid fourteenth century, and John was probably related to Ralph Veske, who held land there in the 1420s and served as a tax collector in Sussex in the following decade. Suss. Arch. Collns. liv. 172. At that stage in his career John himself apparently lived further west at Thakeham near Pulborough. It was alleged in Chancery that he had accepted money for the sale of some land there but had failed to complete the transaction as promised, KB27/661, rot. 79; C1/69/344. and in Michaelmas term 1432 John Apsley* appeared in the court of common pleas to bring an action against John Veske ‘gentleman’ for breaking into his closes at Thakeham and taking a pyx containing deeds, as well as crops worth £5. But in the following year Veske brought a counter-suit alleging that Apsley had unlawfully cut down his timber and stolen goods to the value of £7. It is not recorded how their dispute was resolved. CP40/687, rot. 536d; 691, rot. 543d. Veske did possess property nearer to the borough he represented in Parliament, for he was later called ‘of Lancing’ (near Shoreham), and in 1439 Richard Jay* alleged that he had joined Bartholomew Bolney* in making a forcible entry at Bramber. CP40/715, rot. 528.

It seems likely that Veske received some training in the law, although he never attained to Bolney’s distinction in the legal profession. He attested the Sussex election indenture of 1427, and he and his putative kinsman Ralph were both listed among those of the county required in 1434 to take the generally-administered oath against law-breakers. C219/13/5; CPR, 1429-36, p. 372. John often served on juries at inquisitions post mortem conducted in Sussex, doing so after the deaths of such prominent landowners in the locality as Sir John Brewes (1427), the duke of Norfolk (1433), Sir Walter Sandys† (1435), Robert, Lord Poynings (1446) and Reynold West, Lord de la Warre (1450). C139/29/42; 60/43; 70/33; 126/24; 142/21. It may be that for a substantial part of this period he was acting as one of the county coroners, but the duration of his term of office is uncertain. On 19 Mar. 1444 the sheriff was ordered to elect a replacement for him, as it had been decided that he was ‘not a fit person’ to be coroner. This may mean simply that Veske did not comply with the requirements as regard to status or income, and despite the order he appears to have remained in office, for another writ to the same effect was issued on 8 Feb. 1445. The latter stated that he could not officiate as he was subject to a sentence of outlawry of longstanding. CCR, 1441-7, pp. 172, 246. Nothing further is recorded about him until his return to the Parliament summoned to meet at Bury St. Edmunds in February 1447. Later that year he was party to transactions with one Richard Rownore, whereby Rownore mortgaged to him land at Pulborough and Wisborough Green for seven years. Cat. Wiston Archs. ed. Booker, i. 142.

Not long after October 1450 Veske left his native county to move to Lincolnshire, for a pardon granted him on 20 July 1452 described him as ‘of Stamford, gentleman, late of Lancing, Sussex, esquire’. This move seems to have come about as a consequence of his marriage to the widowed Joan Caylflete, with whom he was sued for a debt of £5 owed to a creditor of her former husband. C67/40 m. 17; CPR, 1452-61, pp. 322-3. It may be deduced that Veske did not survive much longer, for Joan appears to have been a widow again by the late 1450s, when she petitioned the chancellor regarding transactions she had undertaken with Ralph, late Lord Cromwell. In about 1451, while single, she had acquired from Cromwell a 20-year lease of The Tabbard Inn in Stamford, for which she agreed to pay the very large sum of £20 p.a. After Cromwell’s death the local baker who had completed the deal on her behalf attempted to defraud her by sub-letting the inn to someone else, so that Joan had lost the 20 marks she had initially paid as well as the furnishings she was obliged under the terms of the lease to leave in the inn. She was supported in her bill by John Leynton*, one of Cromwell’s executors, and clearly hoped that by appealing to the principal executor, Bishop Waynflete – now chancellor – she might gain redress. C1/26/236. The fact that Veske was not party to the suit probably indicates that he was no longer alive.

John’s precise relationship to Peter Veske†, Shoreham’s MP in the Parliaments of 1472 and 1478, who had inherited the family lands at Wiston, is not known. After Peter’s death in about 1484 the heir to these lands was Joan, wife of John Myll alias Cooke, said to be a daughter of John Veske, son and heir of Ralph, but whether this John was the MP remains uncertain. Suss. Arch. Collns. liv. 172.