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Birth:          ABT 1339 Besford, Worcestershire, England
Death:          1403 Besford, Worcestershire, England

Notes
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I01050
NOTE: Roger Nichols, citing a HoP article on the Besford family that stated Agnes 
was a half-sister of Margaret & Joan, believes that Agnes was the daughter of a wife 
previous to Beatrice. I tend to agree. Agnes must be the 1 dau. by the 1st wife 
mentioned below in HoP.

Following is Alexander's article in The History of Parliament:

BESFORD, Alexander (d.c.1400), of Besford, Worcs.

Constituency Dates: WORCESTERSHIRE Oct. 1382, Sept. 1388, 1391, 1395

Family and Education
?s. of Alexander Besford by his w. Joan. m. (1) ? a coh. of Lench of (Rous) Lench, 
Worcs., 1da.; (2) bef. July 1386, Beatrice (d.1403/4), wid. of Thomas Bassingbourne† 
of Hoddesdonbury in Broxbourne, Herts. and Manuden, Essex, 2da.

Offices Held
Commr. to take custody of two royal wards, Glos. June 1373; put down rebellion, 
Worcs. Dec. 1382; of arrest, Glos. Feb. 1386; array, Worcs. Mar. 1392, Dec. 1399.

Alnager, Worcs. 1 Mar. 1377-Feb. 1379.

J.p. Worcs. 20 Dec. 1382-c.1383, 27 Apr. 1386-July 1389, 14 Mar. 1393-June 1394.

Steward of the liberties of Westminster abbey, western parts prob. by May 1383-
c.1400.

Verderer, Feckenham forest, Worcs. bef. June 1393.

Biography
The family derived its name from Besford (near Pershore), and by Alexander’s death 
had acquired the manors of Flyford Flavell, ‘More’ and Hill near Fladbury, as well as 
property in Worcester. Alexander Besford was probably the grandson of the 
Worcestershire MP of the same name who had sat in 1313, 1315 and 1324. He 
inherited the family property by 1376, when Joan Corbet, relict of Sir Robert Harley of 
Willey, Shropshire, made a quitclaim to him of certain lands at Pershore and Besford.

Besford’s career as a lawyer had begun by 1368, in which year he had acted as a 
feoffee of Sir John Trillow’s† property in Warwickshire. It was not long before he came 
to the attention of government officials at Westminster, and in January 1373 he 
obtained at the Exchequer the farm of the cloth subsidy in Worcestershire, collection 
of which was subsequently brought under his personal control when he was appointed 
alnager in the county. The farm was renewed to last until 1382, but three years before 
then it was granted instead to Hugh Cook of Worcester. However, as Besford 
provided securities on Cook’s behalf, it is clear that he had no objections to the 
change, and, indeed, may have reached a private financial agreement with the new 
farmer. Meanwhile, he had been involved in other transactions calculated to increase 
his income. In June 1373 he had been commissioned to take custody on the Crown’s 
behalf of the two daughters and heirs of Sir John Hastang of Grafton. Having done so, 
on 20 Aug. Besford purchased the marriage of the elder girl, Maud, for 125 marks, 
promptly selling it only two days later to Sir John Stafford’s† widow for double that 
amount. Furthermore, this substantial profit was greatly increased in October when the 
King exonerated him from all payment for the marriage in recompense of his expenses 
and labour on his behalf in suing for the recovery of the wardship. It is possible that 
Besford owed these signs of royal favour to his connexion with Sir John Beauchamp† 
of Holt, then a member of the King’s household. In 1375 he became a feoffee of the 
estates in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire which Beauchamp had acquired by marriage, 
and he was also a trustee and tenant of certain properties in Worcestershire with 
which Sir John wished to endow a chantry.

But Beauchamp was not the only person at Court with whom Besford was connected. 
He was at least also on good terms with William Mulsho, the keeper of the King’s 
wardrobe, for whom in 1375 he stood surety as lessee of Tickford priory 
(Buckinghamshire). Four years later he acted similarly for the farmers of the alien priory 
of Beckford (Gloucestershire). This interest in monastic houses suggests that Besford 
may already have entered the employ of Westminster abbey as steward of the abbey’s 
western estates. The appointment was no doubt the outcome of many years’ 
acquaintance with the abbey’s officials in Worcestershire, for the Besfords held 
Flyford and other property directly of the abbey and Besford itself indirectly (the earls 
of Warwick being intermediary landlords). As steward, Besford received an annual fee 
of £4 and other perquisites such as a lease of the site of the old manor house in 
Pinvin (Worcestershire). His importance in the administrative hierarchy of the abbey is 
indicated by the grant in May 1383, to him and two others, of the guardianship of all 
the temporalities during a vacancy in the abbacy. But Besford by no means limited his 
legal business to the abbey’s affairs, as is made clear by his appearances in the 
Exchequer and Chancery on behalf of other clients, and there is evidence to suggest 
that, like one of his close associates and fellow lawyers Richard Ruyhale* of 
Birtsmorton, he was from early on in his career a member of the circle of legal advisers 
employed by Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. He was returned to Parliament for 
the second time in 1388, when the earl, as one of the Lords Appellant, was in control 
of the government, and he himself profited in a small way from the forfeitures initiated 
by the previous Parliament, being enabled in February 1389 to purchase for 18 marks 
rents from property in Worcester confiscated from Sir John Beauchamp of Holt. 
Another important client was Bishop Wakefield of Worcester: in July 1391 Besford was 
on hand to give advice in the dispute between Wakefield and the prior of the 
cathedral church arising from an indult conceded by Boniface IX which permitted the 
prior’s use of episcopal insignia, and in February following he witnessed the final 
accord made between them. His kinsman, John Besford, the rector of Fladbury, was 
later named as one of Wakefield’s executors.

Besford’s connexions with the earl of Warwick were reinforced by his friendship with a 
neighbour of his at Fladbury, Thomas Throckmorton*, who married his daughter Agnes, 
and also by his association with others of the Beauchamp affinity such as Guy Spyne* 
(whose daughter was later to marry his grandson John Throckmorton*). The removal of 
Besford from his sinecure as verderer of Feckenham forest in June 1393 ‘for causes 
specially moving the King and Council’ may well have had something to do with his 
link with Warwick, whose relations with the King were deteriorating still further, for two 
others of that circle, Thomas Hodyngton* and William Spernore*, lost their posts at 
Feckenham at the same time. Besford stood surety for Spernore, one of Warwick’s 
most trusted esquires and perhaps still chief steward of his estates, at the 
Worcestershire elections to the Parliament of 1394. He was dropped from the local 
bench that same year, and received no further appointments to royal commissions until 
after Richard II’s deposition. At the time of the judgement against Warwick in the 
Parliament of 1397 (Sept.), Besford was receiving an annuity from him and was lessee 
of the Beauchamp manor of Earl’s Croome. Nevertheless, he seems to have come 
through this crisis unscathed: in October that year he acted as the King’s attorney for 
the recovery of seisin of certain lands in Worcestershire granted to the Crown, and in 
the following May he took the precaution of obtaining a royal pardon, which 
specifically indemnified him for the support he had given to the Lords Appellant.

In the meantime, Besford’s second marriage, to Beatrice Bassingbourne, had provided 
him with an interest in substantial properties in south-east England, including the 
Bassingbourne manors of Astwick and Hoddesdonbury in Hertfordshire and Manuden 
and Hyde Hall in Rettendon in Essex; and various of the transactions of his later years 
concerned these holdings. Thus, in 1389 he and Beatrice had settled on Elizabeth, 
Lady Clinton, an annual rent of £70 from property in London which Beatrice was 
holding for life of the inheritance of her son Thomas Bassingbourne, and in about 
1396 Besford purchased for 100 marks the wardship of the heir. Apparently attempting 
to repeat the financial coup of his early years, he then sold the wardship to Ralph 
Hamelyn for 200 marks, but he died before the transaction was completed and 
Hamelyn had to resort to removing the child forcibly from Besford’s feoffees or 
executors (who included Robert Whittington* of Pauntley, Richard Ruyhale and 
Thomas Throckmorton). Besford was survived by his widow and three daughters. 
These latter were Agnes Throckmorton and her half-sisters Margaret, who married 
firstly John Dixton of Dixton, Gloucestershire, and then Thomas de la Hay, and Joan, 
who married Sir William Clopton, another retainer of the earl of Warwick.

Parents
DE BESFORD Alexander (ABT 1310 - )
DE HARLEY Joan (ABT 1306 - AFT 1341)

Siblings
DE BESFORD Alexander (ABT 1339 - 1403)

Marriage To LENCH ----- (coheiress of Rous) (ABT 1340 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE LENCH Thomas (BEF 1294 - BEF 1346)
----- ----- ()

Children by LENCH ----- (coheiress of Rous) ABT 1340 - 
DE BESFORD Agnes (1365 - AFT 1428)

Marriage To DE THORNTON Beatrice (ABT 1333 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE THORNTON Peter (ABT 1290 - )
HELLESBY [HELSBY] Lucia (ABT 1294 - )

Children by DE THORNTON Beatrice ABT 1333 - 
DE BESFORD Joan (Johanna) (ABT 1375 - Dec 1430)

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