Family and Education

?1s. William Rydelere II*, 1da.

Offices Held

Biography

In 1372 Rydelere acquired from William Selede a farm known as ‘Seldeslond’, together with tenements in Horsham. Subsequently, he settled the same on trustees, including Thomas Pylfold*, Robert atte Lynde* and Richard Coudene*, who in 1404 were to convey them on his instructions to John Tolay and his wife Lucy (possibly his own daughter) in exchange for a rent from, or the first growth of, a meadow there.1

It was alleged at the Sussex assizes of February 1387 that Rydelere had been party to the unlawful eviction of Richard atte Berne from two messuages in Horsham, but as he was not found to be a principal in the affair, he was acquitted. He may have been the man of this name who, having been indicted for a felony committed in Surrey, escaped from Guildford prison to Westdean church, Sussex, only to be taken out by force and not restored to sanctuary until a royal order was issued in June 1389. However, even if so, nothing further is known to his detriment. As William Rydelere ‘the elder’ (probably to distinguish him from his namesake and presumed son), he obtained letters of exchange in August 1390 for £5, the transfer to be made through a merchant of Lombardy. But there is no further evidence of his trading activities, save perhaps for an obscure transaction made a few years later whereby he and others were bound under a statute staple at Chichester in the sum of £150 16s.10d. to keep certain agreements made with Sir William Waleys*. Although they duly complied, Waleys persisted in suing on the bond, so that Rydelere and his colleagues had to have him summoned to appear in Chancery to justify his action. On a later occasion, before May 1402, Rydelere brought a suit for recovery of a debt of £2 owed him by Thomas Gautron.2

It was presumably this William Rydelere, rather than his younger namesake, who witnessed deeds at Horsham and nearby Slinfold in the period 1390 to 1407, and who in 1391 became a trustee of a third part of the advowson of the chantry chapel of the Trinity in the town, together with land elsewhere in the neighbourhood. He served as a juror for the inquests post mortem, held locally in 1395 and 1403, on Sir Thomas Brewes* and Reynold, Lord Cobham of Sterborough.3 Rydelere is last recorded in January 1412, making a release to John Tolay and his heirs of the rent payable for ‘Seledeslond’.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. CAD, i. B1587, 1589-90, 1592, 1674.
• 2. JUST 1/1498 m. 11; CCR, 1385-9, p. 588; 1396-9, pp. 56-57; CPR, 1392-6, p. 535; 1401-5, p. 79.
• 3. Bodl. Chs. Suss. 142, 206-7; Add. Ch. 8848; C136/86/5; C137/36/34.
• 4. E326/11529.