THE LIFE AND TURBULENT TIMES OF SIR ROGER TOCOTES 



97 



homely and pressing concerns about a restitution 

 of status and personal fortunes appropriated by 

 Richard III in the aftermath of the 1483 rebellion. 

 An indication of the widespread feeling in the 

 county may be seen in the following extract from 

 unpublished notes on the parish of Berwick St John, 

 collected during the 1 920s. Of Berwick Farm it was 

 observed: 



An interesting relic left by a 1 5th-century tenant was 

 found in the Manor garden a few years ago. What 

 appeared to be a tarnished silver coin, about as large 

 as a sixpence, was dug up. On being cleaned it was 

 found to be of latten plated with silver leaf. It was 

 sent to the British Museum for verification and the 

 verdict was that the object was not a medieval coin 

 but a jeton or teston, that is a counter used in 

 calculating accounts, or as a marker for games of 

 cards. The reverse was copied from a floral design 

 borne on many of the groats of Edward II and III, 

 the obverse bore an abbreviated legend of 'Henry VII, 

 King of England, France and Ireland'. But instead of 

 the usual design on groats, a large boar appeared with 

 the superscription engaged in trampling a royal crown. 

 From below the boar's paunch a little crowned 

 king was emerging and lifting the boar off the large 

 crown. Significance: Henry VII was wresting the 

 crown from Richard III, whose badge was the white 

 boar . . . the owner of Berwick Manor under the abbess 

 of Wilton was a strong Lancastrian, and an intimate 

 friend of Robert Willoughby (later Lord Willoughby 

 de Broke) . Did the jeton come from one or the other? 2 " 



The verdict of Bosworth in August 1485 

 resulted in the death on the field of battle of Richard 

 III and the nemesis of the House of York, chiefly 

 because Richard's support among the peerage had 

 shrunk to a dangerously low level. Further treachery 

 and betrayal by the Stanleys and the Earl of 

 Northumberland made his position untenable. 

 What had started as a minor rebellion by the 

 Wiltshire and southern gentry had spread like 

 wildfire and ended in the complete collapse of 

 Yorkist power which only a few years before had 

 seemed so secure in the person of Edward IV. 



It is perhaps poetic justice that the ultimate coup 

 de grace at Bosworth was said to have been 

 administered by a Wiltshireman who had lost his 

 land and home to a supporter of Richard III, and 

 had, like many others, made his way to Bosworth 

 with vengeance in his heart. Sir Robert Willoughby, 

 himself at Bosworth, was accompanied by one of 

 his servants, a man-at-arms, Henry Ley, who 

 asserted that: 



he [Ley] was a man at Armes, on the part of the 

 Earle against the Kinge, and was neere about the 

 Earles person. At such time as the Kinge was slaine 

 by one Thomas Woodshawe. :i 



Whoever killed Richard at Bosworth, and whether 

 it was the act of a single person or the result of 

 concerted action, it would be expected that those 

 involved in removing a king considered by many to 

 be a usurper, would receive some official recognition 

 from a grateful Tudor. In Woodshawe's case this 

 happened. Less than a month after the battle, in 

 September 1485, he was rewarded with the post of 

 bailiff and keeper of the park of Berkswell, 

 Warwickshire, for life. "The significance of this grant 

 may be judged by the fact that it was one of the 

 first rewards to a supporter at the outset of Henry 

 VII's reign, sharing this primacy with members of 

 the Savage family. Further recognition of 

 Woodshawe was to ensue throughout the reign, with 

 his eventual rise to become a gentleman usher to 

 the king. 23 



There is an interesting document contained in 

 the manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Wells 

 Cathedral which shows that Roger Tocotes was 

 associated with the eventual restitution of the manor 

 and lands of Standlynch to Thomas Woodshawe 

 after Bosworth. The manuscript itself is dated 1 505, 

 but refers back to a deed of forty years earlier 

 (1465), which attempts to confirm possession of 

 Standlynch to Henry and Elizabeth Hugyns, the 

 parents of Woodshawe's wife, from whom it 

 eventually passed to Thomas and Grace 

 Woodshawe. In 1505 there appears to have been a 

 lawsuit in progress in London, such litigation being 

 an inevitable consequence of conflicting claims on 

 the manor which arose after Bosworth and the 

 change of government. During this lawsuit the 

 original deed of 1465 was produced in which Roger 

 Tocotes was mentioned as a lessee of the Standlynch 

 lands from Richard Beauchamp, bishop of 

 Salisbury. 24 



After Bosworth, Tocotes was restored to favour 

 by Henry VII and immediately became sheriff of 

 Wiltshire for the third time and knight of the body 

 to the king. He also became comptroller of the 

 household, this time to Henry Tudor himself. Now 

 an elderly man by medieval standards, he continued 

 to serve as a commissioner of array, as a crown 

 steward, and was granted the constableship of 

 Devizes Castle for life. 25 His thoughts would now 

 inevitably have turned to making plans for the 

 repose of his own soul and giving thanks for his 



