A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



Ruthyn, Sir John, afterwards Lord Wenlock,"' and Sir Thomas Hoo,'^* 

 afterwards Lord Hoo of Hastings. Of these, Cornwall and Wenlock were 

 not of old Bedfordshire families, and neither left an heir to his title. Lord 

 Hoo of (Luton) Hoo and Hastings was the last representative of a Bedford- 

 shire family, and the only one who bore the title. Sir John Cornwall, who 

 had married the Countess of Huntingdon, sister of Henry IV,"' held high 

 command at Agincourt, and distinguished himself by capturing the Count of 

 Vendome, by whose ransom he was allowed to profit,"* and he built a castle 

 on his property at Ampthill with his Agincourt spoils."^ He was made 

 Lord Fanhope in 1433, ^^^ ^^^^ ^" H43-"' Wenlock, who inherited 

 property at Houghton Conquest, was his immediate neighbour there, though 

 his chief seat was at Luton, and Lord Grey's chief seat was Wrest Park at 

 Silsoe, in the neighbouring parish of Flitton. 



Between Lords Fanhope and Grey some cause of dissension had arisen, 

 which led to a scene that recalls the days of the Paston Letters. In the 

 early summer of 1437, a special commission was issued to William Peck, 

 John Ludsop, and other justices, to inquire into certain matters in Bed- 

 fordshire. After issuing a precept to the sheriff to have a sufficient jury 

 ready, they came to the village of Silsoe, where they were met by Lord Fanhope 

 and Sir John Wenlock with some sixty armed men. While the commissioners 

 were standing in a place by the church,"' where they proposed to hold the 

 session, there came marching through the village a troop of five or six score 

 men, led by John Enderby ; "" they were armed with bows, gisarmes, and 

 poleaxes, and some bore armour of defence, but only five or six of them were 

 of Enderby's own ' meyny.' Lord Grey joined them with fifty or sixty men, 

 came to the church, and asked the commissioners what they did there. 

 When they showed him their commission, he begged to know whether they 

 could not have found some spot for the session other than his vill of Silsoe ; 

 that must have been chosen ' in despite of him ' ; yet he would not obstruct 

 this session, but should wait to see what they meant. Much altercation 

 followed, but there appears to have been no actual violence, though Lord Grey's 

 force grew to two hundred or three hundred, and Lord Fanhope had sent 

 to Ampthill for his ' barneys ' and more men. The two lords were finally 

 induced by Sir Thomas Wauton to submit their dispute to arbitration, 

 and the commissioners adjourned the sessions. They were afterwards 

 summoned to London, and examined about the affair in the Star Chamber 

 by the Privy Council."^ In January 1439 something of the same kind 

 happened at Bedford. Lord Fanhope, Ludsop, and Peck, on the one side, 

 and Wauton and Enderby on the other, supported by large bodies of gentle- 

 men and yeomen, appear to have come into collision, each party claiming 



"' Sheriff in 1444 {P.R.O. List), and member for the county in 1433, 1436-7, 1446-7, 1448-9, and 

 1455 ; on the last occasion he was Speaker of the House of Commons {Diet. Nat. Biog.). 



'" Sheriff in 1 429-30 {P.R.O. List), and K.G. {Diet. Nat. Biog.). 



'" Ca/. Pat. 1399-1401, p. 409. 



"" 'Cui rex dedit dictum comitem et financiam suam' ; Ca/. Rot. Pat. (Rec. Com.), 271a. 



'" Lysona, Mag. Brit, i, 37, quoting Leland. Lysons says that he purchased Ampthill in 1441 (quoting 

 Close Roll, 19 Hen. VI), but he certainly had property there in 1428 {FeuJ. Aids, i, 36). 



'™ Collins, Peerage, ii, 33. 



"" Doubtless Flitton Church, built by this Lord Grey, and adorned with the Hastings arms, which had 

 been adjudged to him ; see Lysons, op. cit. i, 86. 



''" Knight of the shire in five Parliaments between 1429 and 1441 {Ret. ofMemb. of Pari.). 



'" Proc. of P.C. V, 35-9, 57-9. 



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