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PESHALE, Sir Adam (d.1419), of Peshale and Shifnal, Salop, and Weston-under-Lizard, Staffs.
Family and Education
Offices Held
Biography
Peshaleâs father, who sat for Staffordshire in 1341, was described four years later as a âcommon malefactorâ, and his arrest was ordered for homicide and other crimes. He was slain early in 1346 on Caynton Heath, Shropshire, allegedly while resisting arrest, and his lands in Sondon, Eccleshall and Horsley (Staffordshire) were confiscated. They were eventually restored to his second son, Richard (d.1388), and the latterâs issue. Richard took after his father in âbearing himself tyrannously to mean menâ, indulging in extortion and assault and starting brawls, most notably with Sir John Ipstones*, son of the man who, in his view, had murdered his father.[2]
Adam, his younger brother, was of similar temperament, as the many violent episodes in his career well attest, and he was often hauled before the courts to answer for felonies committed in Shropshire and Staffordshire, though he always escaped severe penalty. In 1358, for example, John, Lord Botetourt, caught him and Richard poaching and hunting on his land at Mere, and in 1373 Sir William Trussell complained that the Peshale brothers had driven away his livestock at Shifnal, assaulted his servants and held some of them to ransom. On the latter occasion, Hugh, earl of Stafford, was appointed to head a commission to try the miscreants, but he is unlikely to have been impartial, for Adam and his other brother, Hamon, were probably already his retainers; certainly in later years Adam received a life annuity of £10 charged on the Stafford manor of Barlaston.
It is possible that the earl was influential in securing Adamâs election to Parliament for Shropshire later in 1373 and his return for Staffordshire to four Parliaments between 1377 and 1383. Without doubt the Peshale brothers took a major share of the representation of these two counties in the early 1380s, for Sir Richard sat once for Shropshire and twice for Staffordshire between 1380 and 1383, and Hamon sat for Shropshire in 1386 (although this last election took place during Earl Hughâs absence abroad and clearly cannot have been directly influenced by him). On 28 Feb. 1377, during his second Parliament, Adam was party to recognizances for £1,000 with John Beverley of Penkridge, among his associates being Sir Nicholas Stafford*, an important retainer and kinsman of the earl.
Peshale was knighted in about 1380, possibly for service overseas, and in February 1384 he took out royal letters of protection as about to sail to the Côtentin in the retinue of William, Lord Windsor, the captain of Cherbourg. By this time he had evidently come to the closer attention of the royal court: on 3 June that same year, at the supplication of Queen Anne, Richard II pardoned him all felonies committed before 14 Dec. 1381 and remitted his fines; and in November he granted Peshale custody of the forests of Morfe and Shirlet for life. (During his tenure of the office Peshale was responsible for supplying 12 massive oaks for the vaulting of Worcester cathedral.)
Despite the veneer of respectability bestowed by royal office, Sir Adam continued in his old ways: in 1385 he and his kinsmen were attached for harbouring murderers at Shifnal, but, as always, they escaped punishment. Peshale was described as a âKingâs knightâ on 19 Oct. 1390, when Richard II granted him an annuity of £20 and retained him for life in peace and war, and the reasons why he was removed from the keepership of Morfe six years later in favour of a âKingâs esquireâ Richard Chelmswick*) are not explained. Certainly there are no other signs of royal displeasure, and, indeed, Peshale was appointed sheriff of Shropshire in November 1397 at a politically critical time when the King was filling the shrievalties with his proven loyal supporters.
There is just a hint of a connexion between Peshale and Richard, earl of Arundel (from whom he held a knightâs fee in Weston-under-Lizard and for whom he had once witnessed a deed), in that after the earlâs execution an inquiry showed that he and Arundelâs steward at Oswestry had conspired with the keeper of the earlâs stud to sell certain horses worth £96 13s.4d. for their own profit. However, as sheriff, Peshale carried out his duties in delivering other of Arundelâs forfeited goods to the Exchequer, and that Richard II believed him loyal is clear from the award to him for life of the farm and custody of Dawley castle made in April 1399, only shortly before the Kingâs departure for Ireland (though it should be noted that the place had little strategic value).[3]
Dawley was returned to the Fitzalans by Henry IV, and Peshaleâs royal annuity was never confirmed by the new King. Nevertheless, the change of dynasty had little effect on Peshaleâs appointments to royal commissions, although he never served again as a j.p. He was one of the four men summoned from Shropshire to the great council of August 1401, and along with a fellow councillor, Sir William Hugford*, he was commissioned a year later to supervise musters of the shire levies for service in Wales under Henry of Monmouth. Sir Adam was elected to two more Parliaments, and his influential position in Shropshire and Staffordshire is evident from his conciliar appointment in 1410, along with the bishop of Hereford, the earl of Arundel and the abbot of Shrewsbury, to raise a loan of 1,000 marks in those two counties and Herefordshire.[4]
Peshaleâs high standing in the locality owed much to his substantial landed holdings, accumulated over the years through three profitable marriages, coupled with the same aggressive determination to keep hold of properties to which he had little right in law as had been shown by his late father. He began life with very little, apparently inheriting none of the family holdings apart from Peshale itself (where he had a private oratory),[5] but this state of affairs did not long continue.
Through his early first marriage, to Elizabeth Weston, he acquired a portion of the manor of Weston-under-Lizard, to which he added substantially over the years. The history of the devolution of the five shares of the manor (as divided up on the death of Elizabethâs father) presents many difficulties, but it is clear that all five parts came ultimately to Peshale or his descendants as a result of a deliberate policy on his part to reunite the manor. The many and complex transactions involved in his scheme would be tedious to relate: suffice it to say that the âWhistonâ share was part of his wifeâs inheritance; the âFoljambeâ share, held by his wifeâs daughter-in-law, Margaret Trussell, widow of Nicholas Whiston and by 1363 married to Sir Fulk Pembridge*, was first leased to Peshale and then formally relinquished to him by the next heir, John Giffard of Chillington, in exchange for lands elsewhere; the âChampionâ and âFouleshurstâ shares he purchased in reversion, and the âTrumwynâ share was leased to him for life by the Pembridges. By the time of his death all but the last mentioned fifth were held by him in fee simple.
In 1383 Peshale applied to the Crown (unsuccessfully) for a view of frankpledge in âhisâ townships of Weston and Blymhill, and three years later he made a settlement of what was described as the whole manor of Weston. Peshaleâs first marriage also brought him Newton in Blithfield. After his wifeâs death (c.1366) he tried to retain possession of the manor of Whiston, which she had held in dower, by refusing entry to the heir, Sir John Whistonâs sister Agnes, wife of Edmund Giffard; and the abbot of Burton had to intervene as overlord. Here Sir Adam met with some success, for the Giffards conceded a life interest to him, and he leased the manor to Walter Pryde, clerk, forcing the latter to pay him rent even though the Giffardsâ son, John, later evicted him.[6]
Peshaleâs second marriage was to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Philip ap Rees, who, when her father died in August 1369, shared the inheritance of his lands with her sister Mabel, wife of Sir Hugh Wrottesley KG. This inheritance comprised the town and lordship of Talgarth âEnglishâ in Herefordshire and the market town of Shifnal in Shropshire, which latter boasted a deer park as well as a market and fair and was later valued at £4 a year. Some time between the inquiry about the ap Rees estates held on 9 Sept. following and that held on 22 Oct., not only did Elizabeth marry Peshale but Mabel and her baby died. Wrottesley claimed a purparty of the estates âby the courtesyâ, and after the death of Sir Philip ap Reesâs widow in the following year the Peshales agreed that he might hold their third and the widowâs third of Talgarth for life, in return for annual payments of £40.
Naturally, violent disputes soon arose over the implementation of this agreement. In Richard IIâs first Parliament, that of 1377 (Oct.), Peshale complained that Wrottesley had placed a company of armed men on the highway to ambush and murder him as he was riding home after attending the Kingâs coronation, and that he had so intimidated Peshaleâs tenants at Shifnal that merchants were afraid to come to trade at the fair. Wrottesley filed a counter-petition alleging that the Peshales had broken their agreement over Talgarth, that their men had viciously attacked his servants at the fair at Albrighton, and that Adam, with the assistance of his two brothers, had assembled a gang of 300 armed men, forcing Sir Hugh to protect himself with a similarly large retinue. The quarrel ended only with Wrottesleyâs death in January 1381, whereupon his share of the ap Rees estates passed to the Peshales. Adam also enjoyed possession of his wifeâs Mortimer dower, consolidating his tenure by obtaining from the Exchequer the farm of the rest of her former husbandâs holdings, at Chelmarsh and elsewhere, for 50 marks a year. This he apparently retained until the death in 1391 of his elder stepson, who was an idiot, and his subsequent characteristic refusal to hand it over to his younger stepson, (Sir) Hugh Mortimer, led to violence between them, too.[7]
Sir Adamâs third marriage (which had taken place by May 1389, when he was fined £5 for marrying without the Kingâs licence, and involved the participation of John, Lord Clinton, in the sealing of the contract) was to Joyce, one of the daughters of the last Lord Botetourt. At Botetourtâs death (four years previously), his heir had been his grand daughter, another Joyce, wife of Hugh, Lord Burnell. When she died childless in 1407, leaving three aunts or their representatives as her heirs, the barony fell into abeyance, while her very considerable estates were retained for life by her husband.
Burnell settled on the Peshales their third of the manors of Newport Pagnell and Linford (Buckinghamshire) in 1408 and Bobbington (Staffordshire) in 1415, and although Sir Adam made an attempt to disseise him of Weobley castle they seem later to have been on fairly amicable terms. On Burnellâs death Joyce Peshale stood to inherit a third part of three manors and an advowson in Worcestershire, three manors and advowsons in Staffordshire, and two manors and a view of frankpledge in Warwickshire, but in 1419 she and her husband decided to sell their reversionary interest in these Botetourt estates to Joan Beauchamp, Lady Abergavenny, for perhaps as much as 1,000 marks. Lady Abergavenny also apparently purchased certain valuables from them, including the âgrete Maser, coveredâ, which she later mentioned in her will.[8] Thus, few of the Botetourt properties ever came into Sir Adamâs possession.
He did, however, hold for the rest of his life his wifeâs dower and jointure on the Freville estates, consisting of some nine manors in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire and worth over £65 a year. As always, he became involved in litigation over these properties, first quarrelling with his stepson, Baldwin Freville, who alleged that he had squandered his inheritance, and then, over the wardship of the Freville heir, with the Kingâs half-brother, Sir Thomas Beaufort.9 Besides the estates brought to him by marriage and, for the most part held only for his own lifetime, Sir Adam acquired by purchase the reversion of the manors of Tamhorn and Rugeley in Staffordshire, which he passed on to his heirs.[10]
Peshaleâs third wife was a member of the fraternities of Lilleshall abbey in Shropshire and the Holy Trinity guild at Coventry, both of which Sir Adam also joined. He is last recorded on 23 Sept. 1419 when, as sheriff, he conducted the Shropshire elections at Shrewsbury. He died on 26 Oct. following and was buried at Weston-under-Lizard.
The ap Rees estates belonging to his second wife then passed to Maud, wife of John Talbot, Lord Furnival, and Joan, wife of Sir Hugh Cokesey, the daughters and heirs of Thomas Neville, Lord Furnival, to whom Henry IV had granted them in reversion. When Sir Adamâs widow died in the following year his other landed holdings (apart, of course, from the Freville estates) were divided between his daughter, Joan, wife of (Sir) William Birmingham*, and a young grandson, William, son of his other daughter, Margaret, by Sir Richard Mytton.[11]
Ref Volumes: 1386-1421
Author: L. S. Woodger
Notes
From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/pe...
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Who are correct the parents for Adam who married Elizabeth Weston? references list - Richard Peshall & Margeria Knighton of which he would then also have m. to Agnes Caverswall & be the parent of Richard (m. Johanna Chetwynd), & by Weston of Adam Peshall of Super-Lizard, or parents, Adam Peshall & Joan Eyton of which then he is also listed as m2. Elizabeth ferch Philip ap Rees m3. to Joyce Botetourt, parent by Weston of Robert & by Botetourt of Margaret (m. Richard Mitton) (Another reference lists a different Adam (son of Robert son of Adam of Super-Lizard) Peshall as the husband of Jocosa/Joyce Bottetourt parents of Margarita (m. Willi Mitton)
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From page 344 of Collections for a History of Staffordshire, Volume 1
Thomas le Champion was living.and had some interest at Weston in 1358. According to a Pedigree of the Champions, written on the first page of Huntbache's MS., vol. II., this Thomas le Champion, of Little Sardon, and Isolda de Weston, his wife, both died without issue, and his sisters, Matilda, wife of [Henry] Bentley, Catherine, wife of Geoffrey Congreve, and Isolda, wife of Roger Congreve, became his co-heirs, which last Isolda also died without issue.
If it had not been for this assertion from so high an authority, and the unanimous consent of all the Pedigrees of the Champions and Congreves that I have seen, I should have supposed, from the fact of some of these ladies having an interest at Weston, that they were the daughters of Thomas le Champion, by Isolda de Weston, rather than his sisters. It is possible that they may have acquired this interest by settlement. But, however this may be, I find that in 40 Edw. III. (1366) Henry de Jus,' and Maude his wife, (who was probably identical with Matilda de Bentley,) and Geoffrey de Congreve, and Catherine his wife, concede to Adam de Peshall all their lands and tenements, with all their appurtenances, which they have in the fee of Weston-under-Luzeyerd, to have and to hold to the said Adam, for the term of his life, the reserved rent being 6s. of gold or silver.'9 Harl. MS., 5816. The deed of conveyance has three seals attached to it, one apparently for Geoffrey and Catherine, and two for Henry and Maude, placed one below the other, and the lower one has the impression of the Weston Eagle. I suppose this purchase to have been made by Adam de Peshale immediately after the death of his wife, Elizabeth de W'eston, who is said to have died in 1366; but before the date of the deed which follows in the text he had been married to another wife, Elizabeth ap Rys, whose son by a former marriage is placed in remainder to the â¢state purchased. 'Harl . MS., 5816.www.findagrave.com
Adam Peshale
BIRTH unknown
DEATH 26 Oct 1419
BURIAL
St Andrew Church
Weston-under-Lizard, South Staffordshire Borough, Staffordshire, England
MEMORIAL ID 177102137
Family Members
Spouse
Joyce Botetourt Peshale
unknown–1420
Children
Margaret Peshale Mitton
1393–1420
1330 |
1330
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Ipswich, Suffolk, England
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1391 |
1391
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Staffordshire, England
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1393 |
1393
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Staffordshire, England (United Kingdom)
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1419 |
October 29, 1419
Age 89
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Checkley, Staffordshire, England
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???? |
Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
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