WOLSTON, John

John Wolston’s parentage has not been established beyond reasonable doubt, but it is likely that he was a son of Alfred Wonston, a lawyer who represented three Devon boroughs between 1407 and 1426, and who similarly held lands in the parishes of Newton Abbot and Torbryan. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 891. Like his putative father, John trained in the law, and styled himself an ‘home de loye’. He never rose to the higher ranks of his profession, but nevertheless conducted a busy practice, both in his native county and at Westminster, serving as an attorney, arbiter or feoffee, standing bail or other surety, or attesting deeds for prominent south-westerners, including Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, Anne, dowager countess of Devon, John, Lord Talbot and Furnival, Sir John Dynham of Nutwell, (Sir) Philip Courtenay* of Powderham, John Colshull*, Thomas Carminowe*, the wealthy Carewes of Antony, and even the notorious Richard Tregoose*. CCR, 1429-35, pp. 103, 164, 300, 302; 1435-41, pp. 35, 112, 160, 185; 1441-7, p. 308; 1447-54, pp. 45, 377; CPR, 1429-36, p. 414; CFR, xvi. 242, 294; xvii. 5; JUST1/1540, rot. 53; C1/492/1, 4; C4/49/31; C254/138/70; C47/9/14, mm. 2, 3; KB9/244/10; KB27/675, rex rot. 8; 687, rot. 52; 695, rex rot. 3d; 696, rex rot. 8d; 702, rot. 22; 717, rot. 47; 729, fines rot. 1; 736, rot. 27; CP25(1)/46/82/62, 86/177; CP40/734, rot. 112d; 745, rot. 383; Reg. Lacy, i (Canterbury and York Soc. lx), 299; H.R. Watkin, Dartmouth, 163, 174, 219; Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Woolcombe mss, 710/49; Bewes, Dickinson and Scott mss, 81/R/12/6/29-30; N. Devon RO, Chichester of Arlington mss, 50/11/14/8-10; Devon RO, Shelley of Shobrooke mss, Z1/17/1/2/6. He is first found so employed in the mid 1420s, but evidently found rapid advancement within his profession, for by the end of the 1430s he was prominent enough to be admitted to the prestigious fraternity of the London Merchant Tailors’ Company, that of St. John the Baptist. Guildhall Lib., London, Merchant Taylors’ Co. accts. 34048/1, f. 305. An indication of Wolston’s standing within the legal fraternity is provided by his early association with several of the most renowned south-western lawyers of his day, including Nicholas Radford*, John Mules* and Thomas Dowrich I*. KB27/649, rot. 104; 665, rot. 64.

It was Wolston’s professional reputation that allowed for his return by three Devon boroughs to at least four Parliaments between 1433 and 1442. The Devon returns for the Parl. of 1439 are lost, but it is likely that Wolston was also a Member of that assembly. Curiously enough, the borough of Totnes near his home at Staverton was not one of the constituencies he represented. Instead, he found his seats at Barnstaple, where non-resident men of law were frequently chosen, Tavistock, another borough with a predilection for representatives with legal expertise, and ultimately Plymouth, sharing with John Carwynnak* the distinction of being the first MPs after the incorporation of the borough. If his service in successive Parliaments is indicative of an interest in parliamentary affairs, it is possible that he developed this taste only after his first experience of the Commons at work, for he is only known to have attended a single parliamentary election prior to his first Parliament, and is not recorded doing so again in later life.

The extent of Wolston’s landholdings is uncertain, but he seems to have been in possession of some lands even before his putative father’s death. Thus, in early 1425 he was suing Henry Sprynger, a local husbandman, at the Devon assizes over the title to a tenement in Sparkwell (in Staverton), and about the same time he brought a suit before the justices of common pleas, claiming that Sprynger was illegally withholding a box of muniments from him. The dispute continued to simmer for several years, and before long also involved a local gentleman, John Rem, whom Wolston accused of pasturing his livestock in the cornfields in dispute with Sprynger. Although nothing further is heard of Sprynger, Wolston’s relations with Rem continued to be strained, and at the Devon sessions of January 1440 he once more appeared before the King’s justices to accuse this latter opponent of breaking into his close and felling his trees. JUST1/1540, rot. 48d; CP40/658, rot. 351; 660, rot. 234d; KB27/670, rot. 77; KB9/233/8. More serious was Wolston’s disagreement with the powerful Sir Thomas Brooke* and his mother over title to the manor of Weycroft (in Axminster). This had been bought by Brooke’s father, Sir Thomas†, in about 1395, but Wolston claimed a title by inheritance in his wife’s name. In early 1430 he appeared in the King’s bench to claim the immense sum of £1,000 in damages, accusing the Brookes of having forged their title deeds. Initially, the Brookes agreed to negotiate, but within a year they carried the day in the court of common pleas, and Weycroft continued in their possession down the generations. KB27/675, rots. 22d, 86d; CP40/678, rot. 423; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 378.

The precise date of Wolston’s death is not known, but he is last recorded in early 1449 and probably died not long after. It was probably a yr. namesake who was disputing the advowson of the church of Ullcombe with John Beaumont† between 1462 and 1467: KB27/827, rot. 30. It is unclear whether he left any children, or whether the family estates subsequently passed to a collateral branch. Several members of the family were active in the south-west in subsequent decades. A Richard Wolston, who held property at Sparkwell is recorded from the late 1440s to the mid 1480s, and in early 1449 acted as the former MP’s attorney in the court of common pleas. CP40/752, rot. 102; C253/34/124; C1/162/25; Chichester of Arlington mss, 50/11/12/12, 15-17, 22. If it was he who served as receiver of Totnes in 1484-5, he was probably the man who married Joan, daughter of John Pralle*. C1/9/66. Their son, another John, became heir through his mother to the estates of the Gille family, and as a consequence was for many years embroiled in litigation with the powerful Pomeroys of Berry Pomeroy. C1/13/226-7; 53/34; 111/38-40; 279/75.