Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    BS2177
  • Title
    Suit of Thomas Arblaster and wife Alice versus the trustees: on behalf of son Richard to establish his claim to inherit Pitstone Manor, Buckinghamshire, under will of Thomas Boteler, father of Alice Arblaster.
  • Date free text
    c.1450-1460
  • Production date
    From: 1450 To: 1460
  • Scope and Content
    He had devised the manor to her younger sons Thomas and Edmund in tail – male, or to any other son she might have, or in default to eldest son. She and her husband brought the suit versus the trustees, showing that Thomas and Edmund had died without issue, and the heir was now her son Richard born since her father’s death. The trustees, producing another will of Thomas Boteller, refused to allow this claim. The Arblaster’s suit was successful and the trustees quitclaimed the manor to Alice and Richard 1460 (see Victoria County History Buckinghamshire page 409) reciting will of Thomas Boteler Esquire 23 August 1445 -- Eyton, Bedfordshire, to be sold by executors. -- Executors to sell place called a ‘schew’ for wool in John Street, Calles (Calais), the money to be used to pay priest to sing and pray for three years in the parish of Pychelesham, in St. Nycholas Chapel, ‘for me and my fader and my moder, and for the soul of William Askham the which gave it me for my rewarde and for all the soules that I am bound to pray for. And for the soule of Thomas Roth’. reciting that the executors would not take it upon themselves to be executors because they supposed ‘ that the place was not sufficient to perform the will’ ‘Send for Thomas Arblaster his son-in-law’. ‘These were the words in the very truth’ between Thomas Botteler and Thomas Arblaster his son-in-law ‘that hath wedded the daughter of the sayd Thomas Botteler’. ‘where the sayd Thomas hadde made a wyll wich wyll myght not be performed unles then the same Thomas Botteler shoulde selle sume of his lyvelode the sayd Thomas Botteler dude sende for the same Thomas Arblaster his son in lawe the Thurs day nexte after Seynt Bartholomewys day and seys these wordes to him that faloweth afterward Sonne ye wille graunte me that I shall desire of you ye myght putte my herte in grete ease and there shall nevr ‘fote’ lande of myne be putte from yours. The sayd Thomas Arblaster aunswered agene and sayd fader there was non thyng that ye desired of me yet that I sayd nay to yow and if this resonabull desyre I wyll graunte hit you nowe, the sayd Thomas Boteler full hertely sayd gremersy this is my desyre that ye will graunte me halfe the marriage of youre son Thomas Lyes how somnever ye selle his maryage and then the sayd Thomas Botteler seyde. Am I sewre of ynough to perform my wyll and the sayd Thomas Botteler sayd to the sayd Thomas Arblaster Sir I pray you be not displesed with that I shall say to you. Sir William youre son and your heire is borne to a gentilmanys lyvelode and as nere kynne is youre younger son to me as your eldest son and for I wolde have a bedeman to pray for me it you be not displeased thowe I putte Thomas byfore Eddmond by cause he is my godsoe I graunte this. And when the said Thomas Boteler had sayd all this he called to him John Vicary oon of his executors seying to him John Vicary, my son and I have accorded in suche wyse that ye shall have ynowgh to performe my wyll all and this is my wyll and I charge you that and anythyng he lafte after my wyll be performed that my sonnes part may be amended for me thynketh hit is full lytell. And the sayd Thomas Arblaster solde the sayd maryage of the sayd Thomas Lyes to William Canteloupe for a £100 the which the same John Vicary recevys by the handes of the same William Canteloupe £50. Wherefore the same Thomas Arblaster complayneth him that they shoulde vexe hym and his wyffe so wrongfully as they doo.’ depositions of Robert Wyllys and William Sasset ‘ touching the matter conteyned in a byll sued by Thomas Arblaster and Alice his wyffe in the Kynges Chauncerye against Nicholas Sybyll and others named in the sayd byll’. Reciting the arrangement to sell the marriage of Thomas Lyes which Arblaster ‘hadde by the Kyngys graunte’ (letters patent) Botteler to have half the money to pay debts and perform the will. ‘Wherefore the said Thomas Botteler wold that notwithstandyng any will he had made before of any parte of his lands that there shulde non of the landesthat was his be putte from the said Thomas Arblaster and Alice and her children.’ Thomas the younger son was put before Edmund in the reversion because he was Botteler’s godson (of the Manor of Pichelethorn), and that the manor was to go to the younger sons of Arblaster, and if Arblaster has more sons after this agreement it should remayne to the youngest. Wyllys and Sasset and many others witnessed these words spoken by Thomas Botteler on his death bed. Administration 20 September 1445 Prerogative Court of Canterbury (with will annexed) Will of Thomas Botteler 23 August 1445. Haylesle -- burial in church of Blessed Mary Pichelesthorne, Buckinghamshire in chapel of St. Nicholas in church of Blessed Mary Pichelesthorne, Buckinghamshire -- 13s.4d. for tithes and offerings forgotten -- 13s.4d. for lights -- 40 shillings for fabric of church -- 12d. to priest celebrating my obit -- 20d. to the clerk -- 20 shillings to John and Richard Seman, servants -- 13s.4d. to William Seman -- £6.13s.4d. to chaplain to celebrate mass (per annum) for five years, for souls of self, father and mother William Askeham Thomas Leghe etc. -- remainder of personal and real estate to William Corbet, ironmonger, London, and John Vicary to perform will as executors. Thomas Arblaster overseer. Deposition of William Canteloupe, citizen and Alderman, London he bought of Thomas Arblaster the marriage of Thomas Legh the ward of Thomas Arblaster for £100; cannot say for what cause £50 was paid to John Vicary.
  • Archival history
    Collection made by the late A.W. Turner, and sent by Messrs. Perrys, 56 Preston Street, Brighton, via British Records Accociation.
  • Reference
  • Level of description
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