HORNE, Richard (d.1394), of Britford, Wilts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Sept. 1388

Family and Education

m. 1379, Elizabeth (13 Sept. 1350-5 Feb. 1403), da. and coh. of Sir Thomas St. Omer of Mulbarton, Norf. and Bramshaw, Hants by his 2nd w. Margaret, da. and h. of John Abingdon of Cricklade, Wilts., wid. of Thomas Waryn of Overton, Hants, 1da.

Offices Held

Commr. of oyer and terminer, Som. July 1367; inquiry, I.o.W. July 1387 (wastes, estates of the earl of Salisbury), Hants Sept. 1389 (wastes, Ellingham priory), Wilts. Mar., Apr., July 1390 (ownership of land).

Verderer, Clarendon forest, Wilts. bef. 28 Oct. 1383.

Tax collector, Wilts. Dec. 1384, Jan. 1392, Mar., Oct. 1393.

Escheator, Hants and Wilts. 30 Nov. 1388-12 Dec. 1390.

Biography

Nothing is known of Horne’s origins, but from early on in his career he was in the service of William Montagu, earl of Salisbury. In 1367 he was put on a commission of oyer and terminer to investigate a complaint made by the earl of trespass in Somerset; he witnessed conveyances for him in 1374; and by 1381 he was acting as his feoffee of the castle, town and lordship of Mold, in Flintshire. Horne was to remain in Salisbury’s employment for the rest of his life: in 1385 he appeared as a witness in a case in the court of chivalry between the earl and his brother John, Lord Montagu; in 1387 he was made a commissioner to inquire into the condition of the Isle of Wight, recently granted to his patron; and in December 1388, not long after the dissolution of his only Parliament, he was associated with Thomas Strete and William Stourton* (who were also closely connected with the earl) in the purchase of property in London forfeited by John, Lord Beauchamp of Holt, after his condemnation in the Merciless Parliament.1

Initially, Horne’s landed estate was small, although in 1379 he acquired the reversion of the manor of Hinton Admiral, in Christchurch, Hampshire, due to fall in after the deaths of Thomas Waryn and his daughter, Edith. Waryn, who may have been a kinsman of his, was at that time married to Elizabeth St. Omer, who after his death, which occurred that same year, was to marry Horne. The marriage substantially improved his fortunes, for although the Norfolk estates of the St. Omer family has passed to Elizabeth’s half-sister, Alice, wife of Sir William Hoo, she had inherited (for the most part from her mother) the manors of Britford, Bramshaw, ‘Abingdon Court’ in Cricklade and Burton Grove, the advowson of St. Sampson’s church in Cricklade and holdings in Eastrop, Wick and Stanton Fitzwarren, all in Wiltshire, as well as property in Thatcham and Newbury in Berkshire. The couple also laid claim to a manor in Essex, but in this they proved unsuccessful. Even so, Horne was now a wealthy man with estates valued at his death at £94 a year.2

Horne died on 29 Apr. 1394. His daughter and heir, Joan, took possession of Hinton Admiral, but her mother retained the rest of the estates and married, before 10 July, John Syward the elder of Dorset. After Syward’s death four years later she was deemed to be insane and incapable of ruling herself and her property. Nevertheless, she recovered her sanity and her inheritance before her death in 1403. By that time Joan, who had earlier been married to Syward’s son, John the younger, was the wife of Robert More III* of Stinsford, Dorset.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Authors: Richmond / L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. CPR, 1364-7, p. 445; 1381-5, p. 34; 1385-9, pp. 84, 534; 1391-6, p. 517; 1399-1401, p. 124; CCR, 1374-7, p. 87.
  • 2. VCH Hants, iv. 264; v. 96; CCR, 1354-60, p. 228; 1360-4, p. 400; 1381-5, pp. 201-2; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 19; CIPM, xii. 79, 185; F. Blomefield, Norf. v. 76, 96; vii. 220; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 188; Materials for Hist. Cricklade ed. Thomson, 17, 57-58; R.C. Hoare, Modern Wilts. (Cawden), 48, (Frustfield ), 101.
  • 3. C136/81/31; C137/50/34; CCR, 1392-6, pp. 331, 336; 1396-9, p. 371; 1399-1402, p. 145; CPR, 1391-6, p. 453.