The Musgraves were a family of considerable antiquity, which, over the years, acquired the manors of Crosby Garrett, Great and Little Musgrave, Hartley, Orton, Murton, Sandford and Soulby, all in Westmorland, and South Holme in Yorkshire. Not surprisingly, in view of their influence as landowners, they came to play a notable part in local administration. Sir Thomas Musgrave, the father of this MP, for example, not only represented Yorkshire in Parliament but also held office as escheator and sheriff there, although he was removed from the latter post in 1366 because of his notorious malpractices. He died young, in the lifetime of his own father and namesake, whose remarkable record of service in a variety of senior appointments and commands along the Scottish border earned him many rewards, not least being his elevation to the ranks of the baronage, in 1358, as Lord Musgrave. His marriage to Isabel, the widow of Robert, Lord Clifford (d.1344), gave him temporary possession of one-third of the Clifford estates, so he was indeed a force to be reckoned with in the north. On his son’s death, in 1372, he appears to have become the guardian of his young grandson and heir. In November of that year he negotiated a marriage contract for the boy, who was betrothed to Alan Strother’s daughter, Mary. We do not know what settlement he then made upon the couple, but Strother, a Northumbrian landowner of some consequence, promised to pay him 400 marks in annual instalments, as well as a further £100 in cash.
Somewhat surprisingly, in view of the seriousness of their position, the two Musgraves continued throughout this period to benefit from royal patronage. In November 1377, for example, Thomas was granted the farm of two closes in Inglewood forest at a rent of 20 marks p.a. for the next 12 years, the lease being renewed for a further ten years; in April 1380, by which date he had been knighted. Furthermore, in May 1379, Lord Musgrave himself secured the wardship and marriage of the young Richard Restwold I, whose guardian disposed of his rights with the Crown’s approval. On this occasion, Sir Thomas agreed to act for his grandfather as a mainpernor at the Exchequer, and a few days later he joined with him in promising to pay 70 marks to the youth’s next of kin within a week of the wedding. According to Froissart, Sir Thomas and Lord Musgrave both saw action again when the French and Scots invaded Cumberland in 1385, but there is a strong possibility that Lord Musgrave was, in fact, already dead.
Sir Thomas Musgrave had certainly succeeded to the family estates by 1389, when he was appointed to his first royal commission. He took a seat on the Westmorland bench in the following year, and subsequently served a term as sheriff of Cumberland. While in office, he was accused by Sir William Curwen (and his fellow plaintiffs in a suit at the local assizes) of empanelling a jury favourable to one of the defendants, who was a kinsman of his. The charge was probably little more than a tactic intended to delay the proceedings, since in 1395 Musgrave agreed to act with Ralph, Lord Neville, as a feoffee of Sir William’s extensive holdings in Cumberland. During the early 1390s he also joined with Curwen in witnessing two enfooffments made by Sir William Threlkeld of the manor of Crosby Ravensworth, which he himself was later to hold as one of Threlkeld’s trustees. By February 1394, however, he was again in trouble, this time on a charge of ‘counselling and aiding’ the manslaughter of his former attorney, William Soulby, by Sir Thomas Rokeby and others. He claimed to have been indicted through the malice of his enemies, and was allowed bail pending the trial of Rokeby and his accomplices. Whether or not his imprisonment in Carlisle castle one year later had anything to do with the murder, or was the result of some other crime, we do not know; but shortly afterwards he and Hugh Salkeld I were removed from the Westmorland bench ‘for particular causes laid before (the King) and the council’. His troubles were certainly not yet over, for in May 1396 a royal commission was set up to investigate certain unspecified charges of felony which had been laid against him. He also faced a sentence of outlawry incurred because of his failure to appear in court when being sued by Sir Roger Claryndon for a debt of £30, although he had little difficulty in obtaining a royal pardon for this offence. On the strength of the surviving evidence, Sir Thomas had particular need of the papal licence accorded to him in January 1397 for the plenary remission of sins at the hour of death. Of more immediate value, however, was the general pardon which he received from Richard II one year later, excusing all his earlier offences.
There is some reason to suppose that Sir Thomas sympathized with the Lancastrian cause. His election to the Parliament of September 1399, which witnessed the deposition of Richard II and the accession of Henry IV, no less than his re-appearance on the Westmorland commission of the peace shortly afterwards, clearly supports this view. He was, moreover, summoned to attend a great council held at Westminster in August 1401; and he later helped to suppress the successive outbreaks of rebellion which beset the north during the early years of the 15th century. But his career was now drawing to a close, and at some point shortly before October 1409 he died, leaving at least one son, named Richard, who was clearly the child of a second marriage. The early death of his first wife, Mary, must have been a great blow to Sir Thomas, because had she lived, or even left any issue, he would have secured a share of the extensive estates of her brother, Alan Strother, who died childless in 1380. The identity of his second wife remains unknown, but she at least helped to offset this loss by bringing him land in Smardale, Westmorland. Richard Musgrave married Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Beetham, and pursued a fairly active career in local government.