Family and Education

m. 1da.1

Offices Held

Biography

Newman, a lawyer who lived at Durnford near Salisbury, acted on behalf of Thomas Woodhill as a feoffee of the manors of Great and Little Durnford in 1411. In 1416 he served as a summoner for the sheriff of Wiltshire. It seems clear that he was a fairly close associate of the Sturmy family. John Bird, who sat with him in the Parliament of 1415 and went surety for his attendance at that of March 1416, was professionally as well as privately linked to Sir William Sturmy*; and Nicholas Swan, his fellow MP in 1416, and for whose appearance in the Commons of 1420 he provided guarantees, was probably Sturmy’s servant. More significantly, in Michaelmas term 1417, when Newman was formally recognized as one of the Wiltshire attorneys officiating in the court of common pleas, he was engaged in a suit on Sir William’s behalf. Another of the Sturmy circle, John Benger*, stood surety for Newman’s attendance in the Parliament of 1423, on which occasion he was accompanied to the Commons by Sir William’s bastard son, John^†. Incidentally, Newman himself had in the meantime (December 1421) appeared in the same capacity for Hugh Gower.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: Charles Kightly

Notes

• 1. She, Joan Newman, was a beneficiary of the will of Thomas Hathaway* of Marlborough in 1424: Reg. Chichele, ii. 297-8.
• 2. Reg. John Chandler (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xxxix), 57; CPR, 1416-22, p. 58; Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 284, 341; C219/11/8, 12/4, 6, 13/3; CP40/627, list of attorneys.