Landowner and litigant
When Sir Robert died in 1375, most of the estates passed to his eldest remaining son, Sir Fulk. His widow held as jointure a number of properties: the double manor of Lawley, both parts of which had been Corbet property since the previous century; Bletchley, where Elizabeth established a court leet; and Hopton Wafers, in the south of Shropshire. When she died, in 1381, these passed to Roger. Sir Fulk himself died in 1382 and the entailed estates also passed to Roger: Shawbury, Moreton Corbet, Habberley, Rowton and three other Shropshire manors. The unentailed Corbet estates were to go to Fulk's daughter, another Elizabeth, who was still a minor.
However, there were serious complications regarding four of the young Elizabeth's properties. Under a fine levied around 1363, Yockleton, Shelve, Wentnor and a fourth part of Caus Forest had been granted for life to Joan, Roger's sister, and her husband, Sir Robert de Harley. A year later, Joan and Harley had leased the properties to Sir Fulk for £60 per annum for the remainder of their lives, acknowledging that they were held of the king by knight service. By a third fine, around 1368, they had provided for the estates to pass to Roger in the event of Fulk's death. The death of Fulk exposed the inherent contradiction: Joan was still alive, so Fulk's heir could claim the estates under the second fine. However, Fulk's death raised Roger's expectation of gaining control, under the terms of the third fine. Worse still, Fulk's widow, yet another Elizabeth, claimed the properties as part of her jointure. Roger went to the Court of Chancery to try to vindicate his position, supported by Joan and Harley. Richard II's lawyers argued that the properties should escheat to the Crown while the young Elizabeth was still a minor. In 1384, Richard II commissioned an inquisition by Robert Belknap and Robert Charleton, which seems to have decided for the escheat. Roger Corbet then took legal action to recover the estates and gained them in 1385.
This was not the end, as Elizabeth attained the age of majority in 1390. She was now married to John Mawddwy or de la Pole, lord of Dinas Mawddwy, who raised the issue of the four estates again. Joan was now married to John Darras, and they took Corbet's side. As "strife and debate" was threatening to turn into something worse, the disputants were summoned on 23 June to appear in person before King and Council in Chancery, all being required to provide security for good behaviour in the very considerable sum of 200 marks each. After further delays, the disputed estates passed to the Mawddwys, and later to their daughter Elizabeth, who married Hugh Burgh, a future MP for Shropshire and Lord High Treasurer of Ireland.
By the late 14th century Shropshire's landowners had almost entirely withdrawn from actual cultivation of the land. Like most of their peers, the Corbets had rented out most of their demesne lands to tenants by the 1380s, under a variety of arrangements: tenancy at will, customary tenancies, sharecropping. The times were turbulent and uncertain and the Black death had made labour scarce, expensive, and hard to manage. Landed families were better off with a predictable income from rents than trying to exploit the land for themselves in the face of difficult conditions and volatile markets.
