Go To Section
VINCENT, Simon, of Tarring Neville and West Dean, Suss.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Family and Education
?1s. John*.
Offices Held
Biography
Most of the notices about Vincent connect him with east Sussex. In July 1388 an assize of novel disseisin was arraigned at Lewes to ascertain whether members of the family of Stopham had dispossessed him of an estate of Tarring and West Dean (near Eastbourne), consisting of 11 messuages, 200 acres of arable land, 43 acres of pasture, and five marks annual rent. The Stophams claimed a reversionary interest in the same on the basis that Vincent had held it only ‘by the courtesy’ after the death of his wife, Alice Neville, and that he had disinherited them, Alice’s heirs, by placing the property in the hands of feoffees to his own use. Vincent denied this, asserting that he had inherited the estate from John Vincent, his late brother, and this was corroborated by a local jury, which testified that he had never been married to Alice Neville and assessed damages on his behalf at 40 marks. For his fee at Tarring Neville and West Dean, held of the honour of Leicester, Vincent contributed 30s. to an aid raised for the marriage of one of Henry IV’s daughters in 1401.1
Simon had witnessed a deed at Lewes in June 1394, and in 1405 he and John Vincent (perhaps his son) were among those who sued John atte Wode of the same town for debt. Save for his three elections to Parliament for Chichester, Vincent’s only recorded contact with the local citizens came in September 1410, when he witnessed a deed in the city. It is not known if he ever held property there.2