WOOD, William II

It seems likely that Wood was a son of John Wood I. As his will of 1458 reveals, John fathered two younger sons named William, one by his first wife, Alice, and the other by his second, Katherine. The will also shows that the elder of the two Williams married a lady named Joan and the younger an Elizabeth; that the younger William succeeded to property in Worcester worth £10 p.a.; and that each of them received a share of their father’s estates elsewhere in Worcestershire. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 891-4; PCC 13 Stokton. The testator’s holdings in Worcester included several tenements in the High Street which he and his second wife had leased out to John Campion, and after his death the younger William acknowledged Campion’s interest in these properties. Collectanea (Worcs. Historical Soc. 1912), 33-34. Earlier, while his father was still alive, the elder William and his wife Joan confirmed an annual rent (probably drawn from the Wood estate at Northwick by Worcester) to John Trymennell, perhaps another of John Wood’s grantees. They did so by means a deed of May 1455, witnessed by the younger William and by John Wood’s eldest son and heir Thomas, then one of the bailiffs of Worcester. Unfortunately the deed is damaged in a critical place; it refers to the elder William as ‘late of Burton-on…’ but the rest of this place name is no longer visible. Worcester Chs. (Worcs. Historical Soc. 1909), 13. For lack of any other evidence of a connexion with Staffordshire, it is impossible to say whether the Burton in question was Burton-upon-Trent.

The two brothers and namesakes are first heard of in June 1443, when the Crown granted them £10 p.a. from the fee farm of Worcester for their lives in survivorship. The previous recipient of this annuity was Robert Whitgreve*, an officer of the Household, raising the possibility that the brothers were either likewise linked to the royal establishment or else had performed the Crown some service deserving of this far from insignificant reward. CPR, 1441-6, p. 178; CCR, 1441-7, p. 98. A William atte Wode was a yeoman of the King’s stable in the 1440s and early 1450s, but it is impossible to identify him with either of the two brothers: E101/409/16; 410/1, 6, 9. Following the Parliament of February 1449, one of the Williams was associated with their brother Thomas in attesting the election of Worcestershire’s knights of the shire to the following assembly. It was certainly the senior William who served as escheator of Worcestershire in 1449-50, since he was styled ‘the elder’ upon his appointment to that office. When his term as escheator expired in December 1450, his successor was his brother Thomas. In the same December William Wood was appointed verderer of the royal forest of Feckenham in Worcestershire. C242/11/15. Very probably he was one of the two brothers but, again, it is not clear whether he was the elder or younger.

Distinguishing between the Williams was also sometimes difficult for their contemporaries. Late in Henry VI’s reign the elder was sued for debt by the London goldsmith, John Amadas, but he failed to answer the suit and was outlawed. In due course, the authorities ordered John Marteyn, escheator of Worcestershire in 1464-5, to seize his goods and chattels, but Marteyn mistakenly impounded the possessions of the younger William, who petitioned the Crown for redress. In May 1465 the King ordered Marteyn to investigate and on the following 16 Oct. a jury confirmed the truth of the petition but declared itself ignorant as to what goods and chattels the elder William had owned at the time of his outlawry. CIMisc. viii. 371.

Nothing more is heard of either William after this date, although it is likely that Richard Wood of Worcester, who in 1494 stood accused of having participated in a riot, was one of their relatives. Worcester Chs. 33.