WOLLEY, Roger I

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 890-1.

On 23 July 1421 Wolley and others, as servants of James Tuchet, Lord Audley, had licence to ship grain from Derbyshire to their lord’s household in Normandy. This connexion may explain why our MP, apparently born in Cheshire where Tuchet had considerable interests, came to settle at Derby near Tuchet’s castle at Markeaton. DKR, xliv. 630. That settlement was facilitated by marriage to the widow of the lord of the manor of Hartshorne, a few miles to the south of Derby. Rival claims to the wardship and heir of his wife’s son, William Ireland, soon led the new couple into difficulties. At the Derby assizes of 28 Feb. 1425 Isabel, widow of Sir Robert Francis†, claiming William as her ward appurtenant to her manor of Foremark, near Hartshorne, won costs and damages of 53 marks against Wolley. A little over two years later another jury, again sitting at the Derby assizes, reached a contradictory verdict, even more damaging to his interests: on 30 July 1427 it ruled that William’s wardship rightly pertained to John Merbury* as lord of the manor of Newbold Verdon (Leicestershire). In one action Merbury was awarded £40 against our MP, who was committed to the Fleet pending payment; and in another, sued against both Wolley and Isabel Francis, he was awarded a further £50. How the matter was resolved does not appear, but Wolley may have been able to limit the damage. As noted in the earlier biography, he was returned as seised of the manor of Hartshorne in 1428 and 1431, and this implies that Isabel Francis had not been able to make good the award of the custody of the manor to her made in 1425. CP40/656, rot. 307d; 662, rots. 310, 311; Feudal Aids, i. 265, 309. It might be speculatively suggested that his readiness to represent Derby in the Parliament of 1426 was related to the dispute into which his otherwise-profitable marriage had led him.

By far the most interesting reference to Wolley dates from Michaelmas term 1433 when he sued seven of his fellow townsmen, including Henry Crabbe*, for conspiracy at Hope in north Derbyshire on 1 June 1431 to have him indicted for receiving the lollard leader, Jack Sharp, and for disseminating lollard opinions. This was an episode in the faction struggle which overtook Derby in the early 1430s. Wolley was among a small elite whose dominance of the town’s affairs was challenged by a confederacy headed by a butcher, Nicholas Meysham*. The conspiracy proved an effective tactic. The unfortunate Wolley was duly indicted for treason before the Nottinghamshire j.p.s. on 12 July 1432 and arrested at Nottingham on the following 4 Sept. Although a commission was issued for his delivery from the gaol there (where he had been joined Elias Stokkes* and other leading townsmen) two months later, he did not regain his freedom until 27 Feb. 1433. Thereafter he was quick to seek compensation: in Michaelmas term 1433 he sued the conspirators in the court of common pleas for damages of 100 marks. The result of this action has not been traced. CP40/691, rot. 213.

Although the leading townsmen were able to reassert their dominance of Derby’s affairs, this unfortunate episode may have prompted Wolley to reduce his involvement there. His wife’s country estate at Hartshorne gave him an alternative focus for his interests. In the second half of his career he is generally described in the records as ‘of Hartshorne, gentleman’ rather than ‘of Derby, draper’. e.g. CP40/716, rot. 252d. In the subsidy returns of 1435-6 he was assessed on an annual income of as much as £13, the bulk of which must have been derived from his wife’s interest in the estates of the Ireland family. E179/240/266. Curiously, he was assessed at only £2 in the returns of 1450-1: E179/91/73. His appearance as an attestor to the parliamentary election for the county on 16 Jan. 1449 reflects his status as one of the minor county gentry. Interestingly, he was associated with John Sacheverell*, one of those elected in what appears to have been a contest: in the previous year they had claimed debts totalling 120 marks against a draper and two others of Nottingham in the court of common pleas and they sued a similar action together in 1457. C219/15/6; CP40/749, rot. 245d; 787, rot. 153d.

Wolley lived much longer than implied in the earlier biography. He was still living as late as 1458, when he sued a yeoman of Hartshorne for trespass in the court of King’s bench, but he was dead by Michaelmas term 1459, when his widow was sued by John Ireland for making waste in the lands she held in dower of his inheritance in Hartshorne. She was also involved in litigation as our MP’s executrix at least as late as 1461. KB27/788, rot. 48d; 802, rot. 34; CP40/795, rot. 78d.