of Leicester, which had been forfeited by Everard Digby, attainted of high treason in 1461. Afterwards Peter Curteys held the office of Keeper of the Wardrobe to King Richard the Third.
After the death of Richard III Piers Curteys became Keeper of the Wardrobe to Henry VII and also Usher to the icing's Chamber and Keeper of the King's Palace at Westminster. When the power of electing parliamentary burgesses was divided in the year 1478 between the commonalty of the town and the Mayor and his Brethren the commons chose as their representative Peter Curteys, and in the years 1483, 1489, 1491 and 1495 they repeated their choice. Peter Curtis who entered the Guild in 1481, and is described as a "gentleman," may have been his son, but nothing more is known of him. The Will of Piers Curteys, Esquire, of Black Friars, London, Middlesex, Kingston, Surrey, and Leicester, was proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury in 1505 by Sir Everard Fielding, Knight, and is now at Somerset House. The testator declared that, if he died at Leicester, or about Leicester, his body should be buried in the Collegiate Church of Our Blessed Lady, St. Mary the Virgin, of Newark in the County of Leicester, and, after providing for a priest to sing for a year for his soul and for the souls of his "fader and moder brethern and sustren frends and benefactors and for all Christian soules," and giving legacies of 20s. to each of his four men-servants, and 13s. 4d. to each of two female servants, he bequeathed the residue of his estate "to be distributed and disposed by myn executors underwritten in deeds and werks of mercy and charitie as they by their good discrecions shall think to be most to the pleasure of god and for the welth of my soule." He devised his land in Middlesex in trust for sale, the net purchase money to provide an honest priest to pray for his soul and for the souls aforesaid as long as it will endure, "that is to say in the Church where my body shall be buried."
Of the Newton family, Thomas was a Merchant of the Staple of Calais, who entered the Guild of Leicester in 1500, became an Alderman and held several public offices. The better
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