Family and Education

b. by 1514 ?s of John Davy of Dorchester. m. Elizabeth.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Dorchester 1541-2.2

Biography

John Davy was probably a son of the John Davy of Dorchester who bought a burgage in the town in 1510, re-sold in 1529 to Owen Hayman. On a number of occasions between 1535 and 1540 Davy was named as attorney by one of the parties to conveyances within Dorchester, and from 1536 he regularly witnessed town deeds, being described on the last such occasion in March 1560 as John Davy senior. In 1539 he appeared at the musters as an archer, and six years later he was assessed at £20 in goods. His single experience of the House as the town’s junior Member in Mary’s third Parliament was probably the peak of his municipal career: unlike his fellow-Member, Christopher Hole, he was not among those Members prosecuted for leaving the Parliament without licence before its dissolution. The John Davy of Dorchester, vintner, who bought a house in the town in 1565 may have been the younger John Davy. A will in this name was registered in 1570, but in the act book the surname is given as Dewlin and the will itself was proved by Alban Dewlin, ‘the natural and legitimate brother of the deceased’; the testator noted that a John Davy and Margaret his wife owed him £4.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. C1/1267/53.
• 2. Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 351.
• 3. C. H. Mayo, Recs. Dorchester, 319-62 passim; C1/1267/53; SP2/S; E179/104/156; PCC 16 Lyon.