Family and Education

m. 6 Nov. 1383, Isabel (b.1368), da. of John Barde (d. Nov. 1373) of Butterwick and Edlesborough, Bucks. by his w. Joan (d.1377/8), sis. and coh. of Durand Barde (1373-6).1

Offices Held

Collector of taxes, Yorks. (E. Riding) Dec. 1414, Nov. 1415, Nov. 1416, Dec. 1417, Nov. 1419.

Biography

Robert may perhaps have been related to the John Martin who held land in Scarborough at some point before 1378, but he did not otherwise have any known connexion with the borough which returned him twice to Parliament. His own estates lay in Thwing (near Filey in the wapentake of Dickering), and it was evidently with the intention of consolidating his holdings in the area that he married Isabel, the elder daughter of John Barde, who had died in 1373, leaving property in the nearby parish of Butterwick, as well as the manor of Edlesborough and other land in Buckinghamshire, to his infant son, Durand. The latter’s early death and their mother’s demise soon afterwards, placed Isabel and her sister, Alice, next in line of succession. In May 1385, some two years after their marriage, Isabel and Robert were assigned one half of the inheritance, and a few months later Robert entered the House of Commons for the first time. Whether or not he sought election to deal with any problems arising from the partition of the Barde estates we shall never know, but the electors of Scarborough were clearly prepared to return him again in 1391.2

In September 1393, Robert acted as a mainpernor in Chancery for a Hull man facing an action of account, but he appears otherwise to have lived quietly on his estates. Many years later, in 1411, he and his wife came to an agreement with Alice, whereby they retained all the Yorkshire properties of John Barde, while relinquishing to her their title to the land in Buckinghamshire. It was almost certainly the former MP who went on to act as a tax collector on five occasions in the East Riding between then and 1419, but the Robert Martin who was living in Butterwick in 1428 was probably his son or grandson.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

• 1. CIPM, xiv. no. 5; xvi. nos. 97, 98; CCR, 1385-9, p. 186.
• 2. VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), ii. 193; CIPM, xiv. no. 5; xvi. nos. 97, 98; CCR, 1385-9, p. 186; CFR, x. 96; White Vellum Bk. Scarborough ed. Jeayes, no. 23C.
• 3. VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), ii. 193; VCH Bucks. iii. 352; CCR, 1392-6, p. 230.