WHITNEY, Sir Robert

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 840-1.

Shortly before Whitney went to France in 1420, a serious complaint was laid against him in Chancery. He was accused of perpetrating ‘diuerses heynouses et horribles’ riots in Huntington, a few miles to the north of his home at Whitney-on-Wye, against the tenants of Sir William Bourgchier† and his wife, Anne, dowager countess of Stafford. This petition is to be dated between 23 July 1417 and 28 May 1420: C1/4/63. There is little else to add to the earlier biography. In February 1420 he indented to serve in France for a year with a retinue of four men-at-arms, including himself, and 12 archers; and his son, Eustace, was one of several Herefordshire men who accompanied the young King to France in April 1430. E404/35/277; 46/311; E101/49/36, m. 10; E403/693, m. 19; 695, m. 4A. In 1427 Sir Robert brought an interesting action against the vicar of Kinlet (Worcestershire), accusing him of breaking his park at Pencombe and taking three ‘pullos austurcorum nidificancium’ worth as much as £12, an illustration of the very high value placed upon hawks. On 7 Oct. 1441, by a deed dated at Pencombe, he granted all his lands, including the distant manor of Combwich in Somerset (which the Whitneys had held since the thirteenth century), to feoffees headed by Thomas Bromwich* and including two of the leading townsmen of Hereford, John Mey and John Fuster. CP40/667, rot. 36d; Herefs. RO, LC deeds 6566.