Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Roger was probably related to Valentine Dover, a shipmaster who was mayor of Winchelsea in about 1359-60.1 He owned lands in the neighbourhood, at Ore, Guestling, Icklesham, Pett and Fairlight, on which as a Portsman he claimed exemption from taxation between 1373 and 1410. In August 1388 he accompanied the mayor of Winchelsea to a meeting with the abbot of Battle, and in January following he represented the town at a session of the Brodhull. He is recorded as witness to deeds in Winchelsea from 1390. Dover’s principal occupation is nowhere mentioned, although it probably involved dealing in nautical stores, for in 1399 he supplied a ‘bunne’ (?bin) and a barrel to contain provisions on a ship sent by Winchelsea to serve on Richard II’s second expedition to Ireland. He was one of those who, having been accused in 1410 of encroaching and building on the King’s property pertaining to the manor of Iham, were summoned to answer in the Exchequer at Michaelmas 1414. Some of his land in Winchelsea was to be appropriated after January 1415 as site for the new walls proposed to be built within the town’s original perimeter.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: A. P.M. Wright

Notes

• 1. CPR, 1345-8, p. 215; Dover Chs. ed. Statham, 80.
• 2. E179/225/5, 12, 17, 31, 33, 34; Add. Chs. 16431-2, 20197, 20204; E159/191 Mich. rot. 15; CIMisc. vii. 503. He was probably the father of John Dover, the Portsman who held land at Icklesham under Henry V: E179/225/36, 38, 40.