STOKKES, Thomas (d.1460/1), of Derby.

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

May 1421
1431
1435
1437
1442

Family and Education

s. of Elias Stokkes*. m. bef. 1420, Agnes,2 1s.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Derby Mich. 1411-12, 1434-5.3

Biography

Like his father, Thomas was a merchant, but in addition he was also engaged in the manufacture of cloth. In June 1409, along with Elias, he attested an indenture drawn up at Derby by Henry Booth*. During his first term as bailiff, Thomas attached the borough seal to the electoral indenture for the Parliament of 1411. Part of his parents’ property in Derby, eight messuages, came into his hands in May 1420, and in 1431 his holdings in the town were valued at £4 p.a. In addition to this he acquired through marriage the manor of Arleston. Referred to as Thomas Stokkes ‘of Derbyshire esquire’, in November 1431 he found mainprise at the Exchequer for Sir John Keighley, as lessee of Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire.4

In April 1434 Stokkes served on the borough jury presenting evidence to a special commission of oyer and terminer presided over by the duke of Bedford, but another jury indicted Ralph and Nicholas Stokkes, yeomen (probably kinsmen of his), for stealing a length of silver cloth worth 46s.8d., a horse worth £2 and 13s.4d. in cash, and charged him and his son, Robert, with harbouring them despite knowledge of their felonies. A month afterwards Thomas was listed among the Derbyshire gentry sworn not to maintain those whose broke the peace. On the occasion of his third election to Parliament, on 15 Sept. 1435, he was once more bailiff of Derby, but his term of office ended before the Commons assembled. He attended the elections at Derby in 1449, 1453, 1455 and 1460,5 but died before December 1461, when his son sold a part of his inherited property in ‘Bagelone’.6

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. C219/12/5. According to the endorsement of the writ John Stokkes was returned for the borough, but the election indenture names Thomas. John sat for Derby in 1422 and 1427.
  • 2. CP25(1)39/43/12.
  • 3. C219/10/6, 14/5.
  • 4. E101/343/21; E326/10835; C219/10/6; CP25(1)39/43/12, 44/9; Feudal Aids, i. 277; CFR, xvi. 76.
  • 5. KB9/11 mm. 11, 16d; CPR, 1429-36, p. 410; C219/14/5, 15/6, 7, 16/2, 3, 6.
  • 6. Derbys. Chs. ed. Jeayes, 992.