RADEMYLDE, Ralph (c.1379-1443), of Lancing, Suss.

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

1420
Dec. 1421

Family and Education

b.c.1379, yr. s. of Thomas Rademylde1 of Beverington, Suss. and bro. and h. of Richard Rademylde (d.1401). m. (1) bef. 1425, Margaret (b.c.1402), er. da. of Sir Richard Camoys by Joan, da. of Richard, 3rd Lord Poynings, sis. and coh. of Hugh, Lord Camoys (d.1426), 1s. Robert, 2da.; (2) bef. Oct. 1440, Agnes.2

Offices Held

Commr. to raise royal loans, Suss. Nov. 1419.

Biography

The family of Rademylde, which had held the Sussex manor of Rodmill-Beverington since the 13th century, also owned the manors of Lancing and Albourne, together with land at Arlington and East Hoathly. Ralph inherited all but a dower portion of these estates following the death of his elder brother in 1401. Lancing and Beverington alone were to be assessed for the purposes of taxation in 1412 as worth £33 a year. Rademylde often acted as patron of Albourne rectory, and in 1438 his feoffees presented to East Hoathly church on his behalf.3

Rademylde may have made his important first marriage to a grand daughter of Thomas, 2nd Lord Camoys (who had commanded the left wing of the English army at Agincourt), before his first election to Parliament in 1420. Certainly, he was known before then to his wife’s uncle, Robert, 4th Lord Poynings, who in July 1419 stood surety for him and Richard Bannebury* when, at the Exchequer, they obtained the keeping of the St. Cler inheritance. However, it was not until after Rademylde’s parliamentary service had ended that, in 1426, on the death of his young brother-in-law, Hugh, Lord Camoys, the Camoys estates fell to his wife Margaret and her sister Eleanor, wife of (Sir) Roger Lewknor. The heiresses’ uncle, Sir Roger Camoys, apparently gained possession of some of the family properties, but in 1428 the Rademyldes and Lewknors began legal proceedings in order to recover certain manors in Sussex, and in 1433 Sir Roger formally ceded Trotton to them. The inheritance, consisting of no fewer than 14 manors in Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Huntingdonshire and (principally) Sussex, was partitioned equally between the two sisters. The share which Rademylde held jure uxoris was to be valued at his death at £55 p.a., although it was probably worth much more.4

Rademylde fell out with Lewknor in 1432 over patronage of the church at Broadwater, by promoting as candidates first his wife’s cousin John, son of Lord Poynings, and then (John having been discovered to be a minor and otherwise incapable of holding a living) one of his own feoffees, a chaplain called Richard Crowner. This led to a lawsuit in the course of which Lewknor’s nominee was confirmed as incumbent, only for Crowner to take his place subsequently. In 1434 Rademylde was named among the gentry of Sussex required to take the oath, administered nationwide, not to maintain those who broke the peace. He was on good terms with his influential neighbours, the brothers Sir Roger* and James Fiennes: the former, then treasurer of Henry VI’s household, became one of his trustees in the manor of Beverington; the other, a highly favoured esquire of the King’s body, made an agreement with him for the marriage of Rademylde’s only son, Robert, to his daughter, Emmeline. The wedding was postponed while Fiennes was overseas on royal service, so that it had not taken place by the time of Rademylde’s death on 3 Aug. 1443. However, just three days later, Fiennes obtained from the King the marriage of young Robert, now a royal ward, together with sole custody of his inheritance.5

Rademylde had made his will on 28 July 1442, requesting burial in St. Bartholomew’s church, Albourne, to which he left 33s.4d. for building works as well as a breviary, chalice and vestments. Having remarried after Margaret Camoys’s death and settled the family manors of Beverington and Lancing on his new wife, Agnes, he now left her 80 acres of corn and barley growing at Lancing as well as numerous heads of livestock, quantities of silver plate and various furnishings. His daughters, Margaret and Isabel (now consigned to his wife’s governance), were each to have £100 (to be partly supplied from the sum of 200 marks owed him by James Fiennes), and his stepdaughter, Antigone, £20. Six ‘valets’ in his household were each to have 13s.4d. and four ‘garcons’ 6s.8d., while his son was left all his armour and the three best horses in his stable. The residue was set aside to provide for his daughters’ marriages. The executors of the will, which was proved on 16 Sept. 1443, were the rectors of four Sussex churches, each of whom was given ten marks for his trouble. Rademylde’s widow lived on after the death of her stepson, Robert, in 1457. Having entered his inheritance early in 1448, Robert had represented Sussex in Parliament just a year later. Before the end of his short life he negotiated with Sir Roger Lewknor a new partition of the Camoys estates.6

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

Variants: Radmeld, Radmele.

  • 1. In Suss. Arch. Colls. iii. 101 his mother is given as Joan, da. of Robert Halsham and Joan Camoys, but no evidence has been found to support this.
  • 2. Bolney Bk. (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxiii), 77-78.
  • 3. Suss. N. and Q. vi. 72-73; C137/22/21; Feudal Aids, vi. 524; VCH Suss. vi. 42; CFR, xii. 154-5; Reg. Rede (Suss. Rec. Soc. xi), 269, 285, 293; Reg. Praty (ibid. iv), 111; Reg. Chichele, iii. 460.
  • 4. CFR, xiv. 285; xv. 167; CP, ii. 507-8, 510-11; Reg. Chichele, i. 267-8; C139/28/26; VCH Beds. iii. 194; VCH Oxon. v. 50, 110; vii. 11, 123; VCH Suss. iv. 35; vi. 69; vii. 81, 226; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 332.
  • 5. Suss. Arch. Colls. lxxiv. 123; CPR, 1429-36, p. 372; Reg. Praty, 137; CFR, xvii. 269-70.
  • 6. Bolney Bk. 77-78; Lambeth Pal. Lib. Reg. Stafford, f. 118; C139/109/34; CPR, 1446-52, p. 125.