52 
The Wil of Thomas Polton, Bishop of 
GHorcester, A.B. 1432. 
By the Rev. C. Soames. 
mSHE maker of the following will was one Thomas Polton, a 
member of a family which must have been of considerable 
standing in the county. We find Thomas de Polton in A.D. 1300 
among the persons selected to view and report on the boundaries of 
Savernake Forest. In 1333 Thomas de Polton appears in a list of 
wealthy burgesses of Marlborough. In 1340 one knight’s fee in 
Polton, in the parish of Mildenhall, was held by John de Polton, 
and half a fee by Thomas de Polton, both under the barony of Castle 
Combe. In 1404 Thomas Poulton is mentioned as a tenant, and in 
1424 the testator held under the same barony. About the same 
date his uncle Thomas was in possession of a considerable estate at 
Wanborough. He died “anno virginis” 1418, leaving or having 
had a large family, one of whom—Philip, Archdeacon of Gloucester 
—succeeded to the estate. 
I have not been able to discover the name of the testator’s father, 
but Thomas de Polton was most probably born at Polton, in Milden- 
hall,some time in the later half of the fourteenth century. Judging by 
his will, he was educated at Oxford, and became an Augustinian friar. 
His preferment in the Church was rapid and of a very varied charac- 
ter. He speaks of himself as holding office at Weston-super-Mare, 
and at S. Cuthbert’s, Wells. In 1403 he was appointed Archdeacon 
of Taunton, and to canonries at Ripon and York in 1408. The 
same year saw him a prebendary of Sarum. He was made Dean of 
York 1416; Rector of Bishops Hatfield, in Herts, 1418. In 1420 
he was made Bishop of Hereford; in 1421 Bishop of Chichester by 
