DYER, John, of Maldon, Essex

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1384
Feb. 1388

Family and Education

m. bef. June 1395, Agnes, 1da.1

Offices Held

Wardman, Maldon Jan. 1385-7; assessor of taxes 1387-90; warden of leather 1395-6.2

Biography

Dyer acquired two messuages and a shop in Maldon in 1380, and he subsequently lived in Fullbridge Street. He and his wife also held property elsewhere in Essex, at Fairstead, Terling and Hatfield Peverel, which they put into the hands of trustees in 1395.3 Dyer was engaged in the cloth trade, being assessed for alnage on as many as 68 ‘dozens’ sold in Maldon in 1394-5, and continuing to deal in this product until 1403 or later.4

Dyer was one of the Maldon men whose arrest was ordered in June 1386 following attacks on the servants of Walter, 3rd Lord Fitzwalter. As well as holding minor offices in the town he was appointed as an overseer of repairs to Hey bridge and a collector of tolls on 8 Jan. 1389, the same day that it was acknowledged that he was owed £4 8s. for his service in the Parliament of 1388 (Feb.), payment being assessed on the basis of a daily rate of 12d. At the elections to the second Parliament of 1388 he had acted as mainpernor for John Crakebon. Dyer was a surety in Chancery in a case of trespass in Essex in December 1393, and a month later he was one of those chosen to assist the bailiff of Maldon in his official duties. He was among the townsmen named in the charter granted to Maldon in October 1403 by the bishop of London.5

Dyer’s daughter, Joan, was married in about 1398 to John Flower*, another clothier, who had come from London to settle in Maldon.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: K.N. Houghton

Notes

  • 1. Essex Feet of Fines, iii. 224; Essex RO, Maldon ct. bk. i, f. 22v; Maldon deed DB3, 3/11/16.
  • 2. Maldon ct. bk. i, ff. 1, 3-5, 7.
  • 3. Essex Feet of Fines, iii. 190, 224.
  • 4. E101/342/9, 14, 16.
  • 5. Ct. bk. i, ff. 5-6; CPR, 1385-9, p. 179; 1401-5, p. 307; CCR, 1392-6, p. 247; C219/9/5.