page_title: Gabriel Pleydell
section_title: Forgery
hierarchical_section_title: Gabriel Pleydell / Legal affairs / Forgery
caption_attribution_description: (sometimes called 'Sir William Cordell')
context_page_description: Gabriel Pleydell of Midg Hall in the parish of Lydiard St John in Wiltshire, was an English landowner and politician who served as Member of Parliament for the Wootton Bassett and Marlborough constituencies in the Parliament of England. Pleydell was born before 1519 into a large, affluent family. He entered politics in March 1553 as a member for Wootton Bassett, close to his family estate at Midgehall in Wiltshire. Pleydell's election to the Marlborough constituency two years later may have been made possible by his father's influential connections. He returned to the Wootton Bassett seat at the request of Sir John Thynne in 1563; he had supported Thynne in a dispute over the Knighthood of the Shire in 1559.
  Pleydell's political and personal life is marked by legal controversy. Almost always a defendant in court, known allegations include the forced expulsion of residents from a country manor, forcible entry into and seizure of goods from a private property, unlawfully protecting convicts from justice, forging documents for his own benefit, and illegal hunting.
context_section_description: Multiple allegations of forgery were brought against Pleydell in the Court of Chancery. Although the circumstances of many are unknown, a significant suit was initiated by Member for Chippenham Francis Newdigate at the start of the 1563 parliamentary session, when Pleydell is known to have been in a considerable amount of debt. Newdigate, second husband of Anne Seymour (Pleydell's employer), accused Pleydell of forgery with regard to the manor of Monkton in his constituency, which his spouse owned and Gabriel had leased since 1559. Details are unclear, but Newdigate introduced the case to the House of Commons between 11 and 27 February 1563, probably in light of discussion surrounding the proposed Forgery Act 1563 (5 Eliz.1 c.14). On 22 March, the Commons assembled a committee made up of Recorder of London Richard Onslow, Sir Nicholas Arnold, Walter Haddon, Thomas Norton and Master of the Rolls Sir William Cordell to investigate Newdigate's suspicions. Cordell's involvement as an official of the judiciary may indicate that Pleydell had again claimed parliamentary privilege against Newdigate's allegations, since the case was heard in the Court of Chancery while he was a sitting Member for Wootton Bassett. The committee expressed "great and vehement suspicion" of Pleydell in a report which he read and answered. On 10 April the House ordered that copies of committee documents should be given to Pleydell and Newdigate and that Pleydell's evidence would be kept by the Commons, and no further mention of the affair is evident.
  
  The later career of Sir Andrew Baynton, with whom Pleydell had served as Member for Marlborough, was overshadowed by financial difficulty. In a perceived attempt to gain court favour and reduce his debts, Baynton entrusted Thomas Seymour with his lands (presumably temporarily). When Seymour was executed for treason in 1549, the lands fell into the possession of the crown. Queen Mary negotiated their sale to several members of the Wiltshire gentry, including Nicholas Snell and Pleydell. Gabriel would acquire the manor houses of the Bremhill and Bromham parishes in 1562. Pleydell is thought to have gone further in the pursuit of Baynton's estates; he and Henry Sharington were to be the executors of his will upon his death in 1564. Assigning themselves his properties in Chippenham, the couple (described by Alison Wall in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "scoundrels" and by R. J. W. Swales as "unscrupulous adventurers") directed Baynton's money and estates to themselves, contrary to his intended entailment of the assets to his brother Edward. Sharington has consequently been described by Wall as "corrupt" and Pleydell as "notorious"; according to Bindoff, the action "confirm[s] for Gabriel Pleydell a niche in parliamentary history, detract[ing] still further from his reputation".
   Pleydell released any titles inherited from the acquired estates, which included the manors of the Clench and Stanley hamlets, to Edward Baynton (Andrew's brother) on 19 July 1566 and the Privy Council therefore rejected allegations of forgery against him. Edward had long been suspicious of Pleydell and Sharington, and brought an unsuccessful forgery charge against them to a prerogative court as early as July 1560. He also ordered an attack on Pleydell's servants after his acquisition of the Bremhill and Bromham properties.
  Pleydell, his patron Sir John Thynne and others were indicted in 1564 and he returned to Fleet Prison charged with illegal hunting in Selwood Forest. Pleydell was given leave under escort to attend impending "great suits" against him (probably related to the Baynton family's forgery litigation). He was again accused of similar offences years later, and the prosecution called Pleydell and his accomplices "persons of long time acquainted with such lewd devices and practices".
caption: Sir William Cordell (probably pictured) expressed "great and vehement suspicion" of Pleydell.
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