In 1412 John Smith of Exebridge, Devon, was pardoned his outlawry for failing to appear in the central courts when sued by William Selman for a debt of £4. Smith was also a debtor of Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe, and it is quite possible that Selman’s connexions with the Courtenay family had been established by this date, and well before his first return to Parliament for a borough of which the Courtenays were lords. On 10 Dec. 1421, probably while his third Parliament was in progress, he stood surety at the Exchequer for Michael Archdeacon, the treasurer of Exeter cathedral, John Copplestone and John Arderne (afterwards a baron of the Exchequer) when these three were granted custody of the temporalities of the bishopric of Exeter during the vacancy caused by Bishop Edmund Stafford’s death. His associations at this time also suggest that he was involved in some way with the administration of the estates of the earldom of Devon during the minority of Earl Edward. Copplestone became joint steward of these estates with Nicholas Radford, and it was in conjunction with the latter that Selman twice appeared in the Exchequer in 1423 to provide further securities for Arderne. Then, too, he performed a similar service for William Jewe, esquire, the lessee of the manor of Whitwell, Devon, which pertained to the earl’s inheritance.
In February 1432 Nicholas Carew of Beddington (Surrey) enfeoffed Selman and others of his estates in Kent, Berkshire and Surrey for the purpose of effecting an entail, but Carew’s death shortly afterwards resulted in several lawsuits in which our MP was obliged to give evidence. Carew’s will was challenged by his son, and on 15 Nov. following Selman was ordered under a penalty of £40 to bring the document to Chancery so that the chancellor himself might examine it. Several years later, the deceased’s grand daughters also brought actions against him as the only surviving feoffee, on the ground that he had failed to transfer the property to them when they came of age.