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- From "Sharp Practice" by Rosie Bevan (citation details below):
Nicholas Sharpe [...] spent his life in service as an auditor to Henry VI and Edward IV during a turbulent time in English history. He first appears on record in 1438 creating a valour for Henry V's feoffees in Wiltshire and was well established in his career as auditor for the king in Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset for several years. In 1446 he became auditor of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, and with his brother Thomas, was granted three tenements in York. Between 1455 and 1467 Nicholas received a gift from the king of the farm of two thirds of a crane and wharf in the Vintry ward for ten years, became a seneschal of the Liberty of Bury St Edmunds, succeeded William Cotton to the important post of Receiver General of the Duchy of Lancaster, during which time he was also appointed to the lucrative position of Collector of Customs in London, and was a Justice of the Peace in Essex. Most influentially, in October 1460, under the protectorate of Richard, Duke of York, Nicholas was appointed one of the king's feoffees of the Duchy of Lancaster. Nicholas had died by 1473, when his widow Agnes and brothers Thomas, Christopher and Robert acted as his executors. Agnes is said to be daughter of John Tyrell in Hervey's pedigree, but this is false [...]
His heir was his daughter Joan, second wife of Thomas Cotton of Landwade and Exning, the son of his predecessor as Receiver General, William Cotton. The couple's tomb lies on the south side of the chancel in Landwade church. It once held brass inlays which have now disappeared, but the outline in the stone shows a man with two wives. The first wife, Margaret, has two daughters and the second, Joan, has several children surrounding her.
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