MAYNE, Richard II, of Newton Plecy, Som. and Keevil, 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

1433

Family and Education

m. bef. 1401, Maud, prob. s.p.

Offices Held

Tax collector, Wilts. June 1410, Som. Apr. 1428.

Collector of customs and subsidies, Bridgwater and district 21 May 1413-Nov. 1420, Bristol 15 Nov. 1426-31; controller 20 Nov. 1431-May 1432, 28 Aug. 1433-May 1434.

Commr. of inquiry, Som. July 1419 (lands of tenants-in-chief).

Escheator, Hants and Wilts 13 Nov. 1423-6 Nov. 1424.

Biography

The connexion between Mayne and the borough of Bridgwater, apart from a possible relationship with Richard Mayne I*, seems to have been through his tenure of lands in the neighbourhood, which brought him into contact with some of the leading burgesses. In 1395 he obtained from John Garton, esquire, a lease for life, at a rent of £12 a year, of the hundred of Exton, a third of the manors of Exton and Newton Plecy and a third of the advowsons of the chapel at Newton Plecy and the church at Hawkridge. All were in the far west of Somerset apart from Newton which, lying in North Petherton, was only a short distance from Bridgwater. These properties, resettled on himself and his wife jointly in survivorship in 1401, remained in their hands until Maud’s death. Subsequently, in 1416, Garton granted the reversion to Master Richard Bruton, chancellor of Wells cathedral, and William Gascoigne*, a leading Bridgwater burgess, and after 1423 he retained only an interest in the advowsons, having disposed of the rest of his lease to Gascoigne’s heirs.1

Despite his links with Somerset, Mayne was usually described as ‘of Wiltshire’. Bridgwater did not come within his purview after 1420, and it is clear that by then he had begun to move in different circles, first as a close associate of John Stafford, who became bishop of Bath and Wells in 1425, and then as a customs official in Bristol. Mayne’s connexion with Stafford had begun as early as 1419, when, while up at Westminster for his first Parliament, he had stood surety at the Exchequer for the churchman’s lease of lands in Dorset. Over the course of the next few years Mayne was involved in several conveyances of land in Somerset with or on behalf of Stafford, and in 1423 they together acquired the reversion of the forester-ship of Grovely (Wiltshire), which office they obtained soon after and sold in 1435. In October 1424 Mayne was associated with Sir Walter Hungerford*, John Stourton I* and John Juyn, the judge, together with two canons of Wells, as a keeper of the temporalities of the see of Bath and Wells which they subsequently delivered to their colleague, the new bishop. In 1430 Mayne again joined with Stafford, this time as co-feoffee of a manor in Wiltshire on behalf of Hungerford, now Lord Hungerford and treasurer of the Exchequer. It was perhaps through the bishop’s influence that Wells returned Mayne to Parliament three years later.2

Mayne was very likely a lawyer: a man of his name had appeared as an attorney at the assizes at Ilchester back in 1397, and his subsequent activities as a surety and a party to recognizances and conveyances followed similar lines to the careers of other MPs of this profession. In 1419, at the end of the session of Parliament, he was given joint temporary custody of lands at Compton Durville and Lambrook in Somerset (the ownership of which he had only recently investigated as a royal commissioner). His more permanent acquisitions were situated in Wiltshire. He and Bishop Stafford were jointly possessed of 15 messuages, some 22 acres of land, and rents of 5s. and two ‘okys’ at Bulkington in Keevil, which were subsequently settled on Mayne alone. In 1441 he was reported to have taken the revenues of the manor of ‘Mosardys’ in Bulkington ever since the death of Beatrice, countess of Arundel, two years before. The date of his own death is not known. The heir of his property in Wiltshire was his kinswoman, Joan, wife of John Abbot.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Notes

  • 1. CPR, 1416-22, p. 32; 1422-9, p. 135; Feudal Aids, iv. 363; Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 52, 54; HMC Wells, ii. 615, 652, 664.
  • 2. CCR, 1429-35, pp. 56, 279-80; CPR, 1422-9, p. 397; 1429-36, pp. 344, 497; CFR, xiv. 297; xv. 96; Som. Feet of Fines, 65, 74.
  • 3. JUST 1/1502 m. 218; CFR, xiv. 176, 297; xv. 128; CCR, 1409-13, pp. 206, 225; CPR, 1416-22, pp. 165, 402-3; Feudal Aids, v. 265; VCH Wilts. viii. 253; C1/114/69.