UPTON, John (d.c.1453), of Warwick.

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

Family and Education

?1s.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Warwick by Mich. 1417-Apr. 1423, Mich. 1434-6, 1439-40.1

Commr. of arrest, Warwick May 1435.

Coroner, Warws. bef. 29 Jan. 1453.

Biography

Upton is first recorded in June 1409 when, on the instructions of Robert Hugford*, overseer of the estates of Richard, earl of Warwick, he rode to London on the earl’s business. His name appeared on the list of the earl’s retinue destined for Calais in 1415, and two years later he began to serve under him as bailiff of Warwick. By 1424 he is known to have owned a house in the town, situated in the horsefair opposite the church tower, and he also possessed a tenement in Castle Street and another property (later called Berkeswell Place), which last he sold to St. Mary’s college in 1443.2

Upton regularly attended elections held at Warwick; he witnessed the indentures recording the borough elections to the Parliaments of 1419, 1420, 1422, 1423, 1425, 1426 and 1435, those recording the returns for both the borough and the shire in 1429, 1432 and 1433, and those for the shire alone in 1425 and 1437. He is known to have discharged office as bailiff of Warwick (presumably by appointment of the earls of Warwick who were lords of the borough) for at least eight terms, and his name frequently appears as a witness to local deeds.3 He may well have been the John Upton who with his wife became a member of the prestigious Holy Trinity guild at Coventry. In January 1453 Upton’s replacement as a coroner of Warwickshire was ordered on the ground that he had become ‘too sick and aged’ to carry out his duties, and it seems likely that he died before the following fear, for the tenement in Castle Street was then described as ‘lately’ belonging to him.4 He was perhaps the father of the John Upton who married Agnes, one of the daughters and heirs of John Walden of Warwick, and who, consequently, was entitled in 1465 to present to the chantry of Tredington (Worcestershire) which her uncle, Robert Walden*, had founded.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. E326/5384, 5441; CCR, 1435-41, p. 432; Egerton Roll 8773; Warws. RO, CR 1886; Bloom ms. 373.
  • 2. Egerton Roll 8772; E164/22, ff. 32d-35; Ministers’ Accts. St. Mary’s Warwick (Dugdale Soc. xxvi), pp. liii, 66, 70; Bodl. Dugdale ms 272, f. 281.
  • 3. C219/12/3, 4, 13/1-4, 14/1, 3-5, 15/1; E326/5382.
  • 4. Reg. Holy Trinity Guild Coventry (Dugdale Soc. xii), 23; CCR, 1447-54, p. 382; Ministers’ Accts. 66.
  • 5. VCH Worcs. iii. 550.