IRELAND, Robert, of Locko, Derbys.

Ireland’s grandfather, Sir Robert Ireland, had represented Derbyshire in the Parliament of 1341. His manor of Locko, some four miles from Derby, passed to his son of the same name by 1370, and then, at an unknown date, to the future MP.CP25(1)39/38/207. In June 1404 the latter, described as ‘esquire of Derbyshire’took out royal letters of protection as going to sea for three months in the service of the admiral of the south and west, Thomas, Lord Berkeley. Two years later, in August 1406, he was among the jurors at Derby at the special sessions of oyer and terminer investigating a complaint by Sir Thomas Chaworth of trespasses at Alfreton, and he went on to serve similarly in March and from 31 May to 5 June 1414 at the inquests held in the town into lollardy and crimes committed in the county at large.CPR, 1401-5, p. 401; JUST 1/172 m. 3; KB9/204/1 m. 58, 2 m. 32. It seems, however, that Ireland was never admitted as a burgess of Derby: he took no part in municipal affairs, and on the occasions when he was distrained to be a juror there it was specifically to provide information about matters concerning the community of the shire, not the borough. He attended the county elections in 1411, 1413, 1414, 1419, 1429 and 1431. Besides Locko, Ireland was the owner of property at Yeldersley, and it was as one of the ‘probi et legales homines’ of the hundreds of Appletree and Wirksworth that he appeared to give evidence in December 1431 at the Derby assessments for a royal aid.C219/10/6, 11/2, 3, 12/3, 14/1, 2; Feudal Aids, i. 263, 265, 293, 297, 306. He died before 1 Nov. 1435, when William Ireland of Yeldersley, esquire, probably his brother, assigned to his widow her dower portion, consisting of three messuages, five crofts, a field of meadowland, eight more of pasture, Yeldersley wood and a third of the court perquisites, wastes and fisheries in Yeldersley and Locko, worth in all £5 16s.9d. annually (presumably one third of the total value of the late MP’s estates).Wolley Ch. IX 70. Robert’s son and heir, John, was still in possession of the Yeldersley properties in 1497: Derbys. Chs. ed. Jeayes, 2729, 2730, 2731.