Family and Education

b. by 1521. m. Catherine, sis. of Mary Dutson.2

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Hythe 1542-3, jurat from 1554, bailiff 1556-7; bailiff to Yarmouth 1555.3

Biography

Of the Members for Hythe in the first Marian Parliament, Thomas Jekyn was clearly chosen by the port itself and William Oxenden by the lord warden. His official career apart, information about Jekyn relates mainly to his attitude towards the Church. In the Commons he was one of the three Cinque Ports Members (Sandwich supplying the other two) who ‘stood for the true religion’ against the initial measures to restore Catholicism. Later in the reign he was accused, with John Knight II and others, by the master of St. Bartholomew’s of Saltwood of having taken the hospital’s charters and licences to hold land in mortmain and of collecting its rents from lands in Hythe. At about the same time he and his wife were presented to the church authorities for visiting ‘the prisoners ... at Hythe imprisoned for heresy’.4

Jekyn appeared at the Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports for the last time on 27 July 1563 and no further reference to him has been found.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Bodl. e Museo 17.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Arch. Cant. xlix. 152.
• 3. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 251-4; Hythe chamberlains’ accts. 1483-1509, f. 119v.
• 4. Bodl. e Museo 17; Req.2/22/88; Arch. Cant. xxxi. 106, where his name is misread as ‘Jekys’.
• 5. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 265.