Family and Education

m. Margery, 1da.

Offices Held

Tax assessor, Derby May 1379; collector, Derbys. Jan. 1392.

Bailiff, Derby Mich. 1397-8, 1400-1.1

Biography

When assessed at Derby with his daughter Emma for the poll tax of 1379, Docking was described as a ‘petit merchaunt’. It was probably he who in the autumn of 1391, shortly before his first election to Parliament, presented a petition at Westminster on behalf of the burgesses and commonalty of Derby complaining about interference in the recent municipal elections on the part of William Groos* and William Pakeman* and their affinity, for he provided securities for the validity of these allegations. When the court of King’s bench sat at Derby in the summer of 1393 a local man was indicted for offences against Docking, then acting as executor of his wife’s will, and others were charged with stealing his horse and assaulting his servant at nearby Normanton.2 Nothing is heard of him after his second bailiffship.

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. E372/243 m. 28, 245 m. 31, 246 m. 31.
• 2. E179/91/28A; SC8/42/2075; KB9/989 m. 2.