Roger Corbet (died 1430) was an English soldier, politician and landowner. He was a client of Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel and was implicated in the disorder that accompanied Arundel's rule in Shropshire. He probably fought at the Battle of Agincourt. After the untimely death of his patron, he became a successful municipal politician at Shrewsbury and represented Shrewsbury twice and Shropshire once in the House of Commons of England.
Roger Corbet was the younger brother of Robert Corbet (1383–1420) [1] [2] and was frequently associated with him. However, Roger's very existence is omitted by several sources. He does not figure in the Corbet family pedigrees in the heraldic visitations of Shropshire [3] Augusta Corbet, the family historian, also gives a pedigree of the Corbets of Moreton Corbet which omits him. [4] She quotes extensive complaints to the 1415 parliament, [5] in the original Anglo-Norman language, in which numerous misdeeds are listed, but insists that they refer to Robert's younger son of the same name, who was probably unborn, at most an infant, at that time. It is with his this nephew that he is generally confused. [6]
Roger therefore had the same background as Robert, his brother. His parents were:
The younger Roger Corbet's birth date is unknown but must have been after 1383, as he was definitely younger than his brother, who was born in December of that year. The heraldic visitation lists two sisters, Johanna or Joan and Elianora or Eleanor. Their parents died within a few months of each other in 1395. The eldest son, Robert, was not yet 12 and entered a period of wardship – granted to Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester. [10] by Richard II but transferred under Henry IV to John Burley, a retainer of Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel. [2] Both Robert and Roger were to develop an increasingly close relationship with Arundel, whose family were key supporters of the House of Lancaster.
Roger and Robert Corbet together enlisted in Arundel's affinity around 1405, [2] coming to be known as esquiers de count d'Arundell. Arundel had lost his father, Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel in Richard II's purge of the Lords Appellant in 1397 and this had welded himself and his uncle, Thomas Arundel, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Henry IV's new regime, giving him great power and influence nationally as well as regionally.
In 1407 Roger was one of four of Arundel's entourage who granted a house in Shrewsbury, known as Ireland Hall, to Shrewsbury Abbey: [1] the other three were his brother Robert, their aunt Joan's husband, John Darras, and William Ryman of Sussex . [2] The transaction was probably on Arundel's behalf. However, Roger was at this stage still on good terms with John Talbot, Lord Furnival, the future Earl of Shrewsbury, with whom the Corbet brothers had family connections through their paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, daughter of Fulk, 1st Baron Strange of Blackmere. In 1410 he acted as feoffee to help Talbot settle Worksop Manor on his wife. [1] Corbet attended the election of knights of the shire at Shrewsbury Castle in 1410 and 1413. Arundel's group was increasingly dominant in county elections and Robert Corbet was one of those sent to Parliament in 1413.
The accession of a new monarch, Henry V, released a chorus of complaints against Arundel's high-handedness, orchestrated by Talbot, who saw an opportunity to widen his own influence in the region. In 1414 numerous petitions to the Fire and Faggot Parliament, which was held in Leicester in April, raised grave concerns about lawlessness in Shropshire and the Marches. Corbet himself was accused of breaking the livery laws. He was also accused of raiding the home of the rector of Edgmond, Shropshire in 1412 with an armed force, stripping the house of his property and driving off his livestock. Robert had got into a dispute with the tax collectors sent to levy the tenths and fifteenths agreed by the 1413 parliament and Roger was accused of setting his servants on them....
That is: when one of them, a man called Roger Leyney, obtained a writ against him, Roger pursued him to Dunstable with armed party of five, and suddenly confronted the man at his hostel, yelling "who made thee so hardy to put any bill to the King to undo me withall?" – the single English phrase standing out starkly in an otherwise Anglo-Norman document and signifying the sense of impunity that had hitherto accompanied the rule of the Arundel affinity. Despite Leyney's attempts to come to an accommodation, Roger had set about him,
Corbet had beaten and wounded the man, hacking at his legs and causing horrible sufferings, maiming him seriously.[ citation needed ]
These complaints of "great mayhem" prompted the king himself to preside over the Court of King's Bench at Shrewsbury in Trinity term [2] – the last tour made by the court before it became permanently fixed in Westminster. However, the cases against Arundel's esquiers were so numerous and the facts so contested that the cases were remanded to the Michaelmas term session of the King's Bench at Westminster. However, Arundel provided bail and sureties, and the accused were able to present royal pardons to the court when summoned. [1] The charges were revived and supplemented in 1415 but there is no evidence that any of the accused were ever punished.
The Corbet brothers followed Arundel to Normandy in August 1415 as part of the king's pursuit of his claim to the French throne. However, the earl contracted dysentery at the Siege of Harfleur only a month after the start of the campaign and was invalided home to Sussex, followed by Robert Corbet. [2] The earl died at Arundel Castle on 13 October, leaving the Corbets without a protector. Roger seems to have remained in France and there is no evidence that he left before the Battle of Agincourt, so he very well could have been a participant. [1]
Now unprotected from Talbot's dominance in Shropshire, except by distant family connections, Corbet sidestepped county politics and made a new career for himself in the affairs of the county town of Shrewsbury. The Corbets had a number of properties in the town, at least some of which had been passed on to Roger, who could thus plausibly be claimed as a burgess. This was essential if he were to hold borough offices. Since its incorporation by king John in 1199, the town had been ruled by a duumvirate, elected annually and subsequently called bailiffs, assisted by a common council. [12] The constitution of the town had been reformed in the 1380s under the auspices of the 11th Earl of Arundel, who claimed to be its "hereditary protector," and the council fixed at 12 members. Corbet was elected as bailiff on Saint Giles ' Day, 1 September 1416, together with John Perle, an experienced municipal politician with a similarly turbulent past to his own – except that Perle had carried out his depredations against the Arundels. [13] Corbet and Perle carried through a reform of tax collection in the borough shortly after their election. The constitution of the borough envisaged only one term for bailiffs, with a three-year disqualification from civic office following. [12] However, both Corbet and Perle were re-elected for the 1417–18 term, along with the executive committee of six assessors. Following this, the constitution was again breached when Corbet and Perle were elected coroners for 1418–19.
Corbet now began to acquire valuable positions in the patronage of the Crown. [1] He was made a commissioner at the inquiry in Shrewsbury into the estates of the Barons FitzWarin of Whittington Castle, long troubled by short-lived heirs and a tortuous succession. He was also made escheator of Shropshire and the March, a post with potential for considerable profit. In 1420 he was made Constable of Holt Castle, an important royal border fortress. In 1422 he was entrusted with the custody of 15 French prisoners of war.
Corbet was elected to Parliament for the first time by the borough of Shrewsbury in 1419, when his brother Robert represented Shropshire. It was common for the town to return either current or recently retired bailiffs. [12] His colleague was David Rathbone. Parliament sat for 28 days from 16 October until 13 November. Their expenses differed considerably, Rathbone asking for £4, while Corbet claimed only £2 16s. 8d. It is not known whether Corbet missed some of the sessions or whether he was simply more modest in his demands: the council treated him to win on his return. [1]
Corbet represented Shrewsbury again in 1425. In 1429 he was knight of the shire, alongside William Burley, who was to represent the county a total of 19 times and twice serve as Speaker. [14]
Connected with Corbet's new-found respectability in his later years was a marriage to an heiress of wealthy family. His wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Sir William Lichfield of Eastham, Worcestershire, and Elizabeth Cornwall.
Sir William was an MP for Worcestershire and twice High Sheriff of Shropshire. Although he held substantial lands in both counties, the Lichfields were from the cathedral town of Lichfield in Staffordshire. Through inheritance from his relatives, Sir William acquired a considerable amount of property in Staffordshire, including land at Freeford [15] and the estate of Abnalls, near Burntwood. [16] However, the origins of the Lichfields were fairly humble and their surname was also given as Taverner, after the occupation of an ancestor: William the taverner, also known as William of Lichfield was bailiff of Lichfield in 1308 and later twice represented the Borough of Lichfield in Parliament. [17] The family also used the name Swinfen, from a village of that name near Lichfield. Sir William had a number of relatives who sometimes used these names and served in Parliament They included his uncle Aymer Lichfield alias Swinfen, who twice represented Staffordshire, [18] and his cousin Roger Lichfield alias Swinfen, a Worcester MP. [19] Through both of these he inherited property, although in Aymer's case a good deal of debt too.
Corbet's mother-in-law was descended, through an illegitimate son of Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, and King of the Romans, from King John. Her father, Sir John Cornwall, was twice a Shropshire MP [20] and a close associate of John Darras, the husband of Corbet's aunt, and of John Burley, who held Robert Corbet's wardship. He died in 1414, while awaiting trial for murder, and his daughter Elizabeth was his sole heiress. This meant that Corbet's wife could look forward to inheriting the properties of two wealthy parents. However, an early death meant Roger Corbet never enjoyed this wealth and was not to initiate a new and wealthy branch of the Corbet family, as he and Elizabeth Lichfield had only one daughter, Margaret. [1]
Corbet was troubled by legal proceedings only once in his later years: in 1425, when the Earl of Stafford alleged he had abducted one of his wards. He attended Parliament in that year with his father-in-law.
Corbet died on 15 July 1430. His daughter, Margaret, was only three years old and became a ward of John Wood, a Worcestershire lawyer. She married Humphrey Stafford of Frome – actually Bishop's Frome in Herefordshire. [15] Sir William Lichfield long outlived Corbet and Margaret did not inherit his estates until 1446. However, within 20 years, complex property disputes arose over Eastham and other estates, with the Ferrers family challenging ownership. [21] The dispute and its ramifications rumbled on, with the Ferrers family apparently holding sway in the 1470s but Humphrey Stafford vindicating his rights later, until 1485, when Walter Devereux, 8th Baron Ferrers of Chartley was killed at the Battle of Bosworth and his lands confiscated. This led to further problems, as the Crown and its agents looked again into the Ferrers claims, and in a subsequent contest there was armed conflict between Stafford's heir, Margaret Vere, and the Cornwall family. [21]
{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)Shelvock Manor is a house and grounds in a township of the same name near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It was once a place of local importance, and was for more than two centuries the seat of the Thornes, a leading family in Shropshire. The first recorded spelling of Shelvock was Shelfhoc (1175), and later Sselvak and Schelfac. The name is most likely derived from the Saxon "ac" meaning oak, prefixed by its location on a shelf or hill.
Shropshire was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Knights of the Shire. It was split into North Shropshire and South Shropshire in 1832.
Sir John Corbet, 1st Baronet of Stoke upon Tern was an English politician who represented Shropshire in the House of Commons of the long Parliament. As a moderate Puritan, he was noted before the English Civil War for his campaigns against extra-parliamentary taxation, and for waging a long running dispute over control of his parish church at Adderley which led to his imprisonment. He was a notable member of the Shropshire county committee, responsible for pursuing the war against the royalists. As a part of a Presbyterian middle group in Parliament, he was one of those secluded from parliament by Pride's Purge, and was stripped of his remaining public offices after the Restoration.
The Corbet family is an aristocratic English family of Anglo-Norman extraction, who were amongst the early marcher lords, holding the barony of Caus. Following the extinction of the senior line the junior line based at Moreton Corbet Castle would go on to become one of the most powerful and richest of the landed gentry in Shropshire. The family trace their ancestry to two barons found in the 1086 Domesday Book and they probably came from the Boitron and Essay region, near Sées in Normandy.
Sir Andrew Corbet (1580–1637) of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1629. A Puritan sympathiser, he at first supported the government but became an increasingly vocal opponent of King Charles I's policies and ministers.
Thomas Prestbury was an English medieval Benedictine abbot and university Chancellor.
Sir Richard Newport was an English landowner and politician of Shropshire origin, prominent regionally during the mid-Tudor and early Elizabethan periods.
Sir Andrew Corbet was an English Protestant politician of the mid-Tudor and early Elizabethan periods: a member of the powerful Council in the Marches of Wales for a quarter of a century. Drawn from the landed gentry of Shropshire and Buckinghamshire, he was twice a member of the Parliament of England for Shropshire.
Sir Richard Corbet (c.1545–1606) was an English landowner and politician of the Elizabethan period.
Roger Corbet (c.1501–1538) was an English politician and landowner of the Tudor Period. A member of the Shropshire landed gentry, he represented the Borough of Truro in the English Reformation Parliament.
Jerome Corbet was an Elizabethan politician and lawyer of Shropshire landed gentry background. A brother of Sir Andrew Corbet and, like him, a supporter of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, he became an MP for Bridgnorth and a member of the Council in the Marches of Wales.
Sir Roger Corbet, of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire was a landowner and politician who was a knight of the shire for Shropshire in three Parliaments of England. He was involved in a series of complex and sharply contested property disputes with members of his own family.
Robert Corbet (1383–1420) of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, was an English soldier, politician and landowner who represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. A retainer of Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, and implicated in his alleged misrule in Shropshire, he accompanied his patron to the Siege of Harfleur and suffered a temporary eclipse after his death.
John Darras (c.1355–1408) was an English soldier, politician and landowner, who fought in the Hundred Years' War and against the Glyndŵr Rising. A client of the FitzAlan Earls of Arundel, he served them in war and peace, helping consolidate their domination of his native county of Shropshire. He represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. He died by his own hand.
John Ipstones was an English soldier, politician and landowner. He fought in the Hundred Years War and in John of Gaunt's expedition to win the Crown of Castile. He represented Staffordshire twice in the House of Commons of England, including the Merciless Parliament of 1388, in which he supported the measures of the Lords Appellant. A member of a notoriously quarrelsome and violent landed gentry family, he pursued numerous property and personal disputes, one of which led to his murder while in London, serving as a Member of Parliament.
The recorded abbots of Shrewsbury run from c 1087, four years after Shrewsbury Abbey's foundation, to 1540, its dissolution under Thomas Cromwell. The abbey was large and well-endowed and the abbots were often important political figures as well as ecclesiastical leaders. They varied greatly over the centuries in ethnic and social origins, intellectual attainments and holiness of life. The first two, Fulchred and Godfred, were imported from Normandy. The remainder seem to have been born in Britain and most, but not all, were elected, or at least selected, from the chapter of the abbey. As important territorial magnates, the abbots were always called to take part in the sessions of Parliament from its very beginnings as an institution in 1265. As important figures in the Western Catholic Church, abbots were permitted by the Pope to wear the pontifical ring from 1251 and the mitre from 1397.
John Mirk was an Augustinian Canon Regular, active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Shropshire. He is noted as the author of widely copied, and later printed, books intended to aid parish priests and other clergy in their work. The most famous of these, his Book of Festivals or Festial was probably the most frequently printed English book before the Reformation.
John Burley was an English lawyer, soldier, and a knight of the shire (MP) for Shropshire six times from 1399. He was a justice of the peace for Shropshire and sheriff of the county from 10 December 1408 – 4 November 1409. A key member of the Arundel affinity, he helped muster forces to combat the Glyndŵr Rising and died a short time after accompanying Thomas Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel on Henry V's first expedition to France.
Sir John Cornwall (c.1366–1414) was an English soldier, politician and landowner, who fought in the Hundred Years' War and against the Glyndŵr Rising. He had considerable prestige, claiming royal descent. As he was part of the Lancastrian affinity, the retainers of John of Gaunt, he received considerable royal favour under Henry IV. He represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. However, he regularly attracted accusations of violence, intimidation and legal chicanery. Towards the end of his life he fell into disfavour and he died while awaiting trial in connection with a murder.
Corbet Kynaston, of Hordley, Shropshire, was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1714 and 1740. His Jacobite sympathies resulted in his fleeing abroad to avoid arrest.
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Augusta Elizabeth Brickdale Corbet, The family of Corbet; its life and times, Volume 2, St. Catherine Press, London, no date, at Internet Archive, accessed 3 October 2013.
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M.W. Greenslade (editor), A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14 – Lichfield, Institute of Historical Research, 1990, accessed 13 December 2013.
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