4. John Middlemore, of Edgbaston, esquire [eldest son and heir of Thomas Middlemore (3) and Isabel Edgbaston]. Of his career we know nothing, but it may be presumed that on the death of his stepfather, Richard Clodeshale, he succeeded to Edgbaston under the terms of his parents' marriage settlement. He took proceedings, doubtless immediately after his mother's death, as we have seen, to enforce the terms of this, clearly without result, since Richard Clodeshale remained in possession of Edgbaston till he died in 1424. From a writ still preserved amongst the Inquisitiones post mortem it appears that he owed John de Pulteney fifty marks, which probably has reference to the litigation arising out of the disputes relating to his parents' settlement. According to Dugdale, in 1433, he "amongst other the chief persons of note in this countie [of Warwick] made oath for the observance of certain articles agreed in the parliament then held."[4]
In 10 Henry VI 1431-2] he held in Mapleborough a part of Studley, 2 messuages, 400 acres of land, 60 acres of meadow and 28s., rent of assize, held by the fourth part of a knight's fee and called the manor of Studley, apparently the same lands as were held by his father, Thomas Middlemore. It would seem that the manorial rights must have been acquired from the heirs of Peter Corbison, who appear to have been persons of obscure position. Dugdale states, on the authority of documents belonging to the Richard Middlemore of his own day, that John Middlemore died in 25 Henry VI [1446-7], and that he was buried in Edgbaston church with the following epitaph:
and with the arms, Middlemore quartering Edgbaston and impaling, Or, three leopards' faces Sable, for Waldive.
John Middlemore married, it is evident from the arms upon his tomb, and from the Chancery suit to be presently mentioned, a lady named Agnes Waldive. She survived her husband, and, marrying again, became Agnes Lucy. Dugdale states that her husband was William Lucy, esquire. She figures in an interesting Chancery suit, Ardern v. Ardern, between her late husband's cousins, Walter and John Ardern, the sons of that Robert Ardern who had married Isabel, the daughter of Richard Edgbaston and widow of Thomas Middlemore. Shortly, this was the dispute:
Walter Ardern, "hauying pitie of his said brother and by mediation of oon Agnes Middelmore and Richard sone to the said Agnes enfeoffed the said John in the manor of Pedmore for lyff," but that it was to take effect only on.the death of Walter, but that John had entered and taken possession. The Abbot of Kenilworth, John Yerdeley, was on 3 May, 1466, directed to make inquiry, and accordingly we have his report, in which he states that "Agnes Lucy, now called so (afore called Middlemore, being diseased with sekenes that she in no wyse myght labour to be examyned," had sent a bill of her evidence setting out the facts of the arrangement. This was "written at Seynt Johns in Beddwardyn the viij day of June [1466] By Agnes Lucy." An accord was arrived at, that Agnes Middelmore of Egebaston should have in keeping a deed of the manor of Pedmore to be delivered to John on Walter's request or on the decease of the latter.
"There is no further mention of Agnes Lucy. Her name does not appear in Dugdale's pedigree of the Lucys of Charlecote, but if her husband was of this family he may have been William Lucy who died 6 Edward IV, 1466-67.
The children of John Middlemore and Agnes Waldive were
- Richard Middlemore, of Edgbaston, of whom next
- John Middlemore, ancestor of the Middlemores of Haselwell, Grantham, Stepney, and Stanton-by-Dale, of whom hereafter (16).