Appointment, by mainprise of John Perle and John Dracy, of the county of Dorset, of Roger Juyot to the custody, during her idiocy, of the lands of Lucy, daughter and heir of Geoffrey atte Brigge, in Whitchirche in that county, held of the heir of Edmund de Mortuo Mari, late earl of March, tenant in chief, who, by inquisition of John Pokeswell,
escheator, and by examination before the king in Chancery, was not found to be an idiot from birth, yet by the examination of her personally in Chancery is found to be one now.' (22) Lucy atte Brigge was thought be an idiot, but was found to not be an idiot, but then was declared before the King to be an idiot again.
(32) Alington's father, William [III], had a relatively distinguished career within the counties of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, acting as MP, jp, sheriff, and
escheator, (33) and William's older brother John, though similarly localized in his appointments, served as jp, sheriff, and
escheator, and was a retainer to the duke of York.
Essex, 21 Richard II (1397), with Their Values, as Shown in the
Escheator's Accounts." Archaeological Journal 54 (1897): 275-303.
(61) In a later writ from 1304, the Crown orders the
Escheator beyond Trent, Walter de Gloucester, to return various castles and manors to one Margaret on account of Margaret's ill health (Margaret had previously lost the castles and manors when her husband Edmund died and they passed into the Kings hands).
When in the late 1470s James Stanley, Archdeacon of Chester, wrote to the
Escheator of Chester and Sir William Stanley, the Chamberlain, saying that he had been summoned to Lathom, and therefore had to transfer the responsibility for carrying out an arbitration, he was not doing so to another member of the family, but to other Chester palatinate office-holders.
Unfortunately the nature of both Inquisitions and wills is so formulaic, the expectation being that the
escheator or the testator will observe the religious and social descencies in their choice of words and, in the latter case, bequests, that few indications of individuals' true feelings are given.
In the first part, the gentry are defined and described with admirable specificity, even to the jobs they performed in society as sheriffs,
escheators, justices of the peace, tax collectors, parish officials, and administrators of the manorial courts.
The professional conduct and financial accountability of local officials like sheriffs, coroners,
escheators, tax collectors, and customs agents were frequently doubted by the crown and community, the doubts reflected in occasional nation-wide investigations into their performance and/ or that resulted in their removal from office (310).
