Family and Education

b. by 1482. m. Joan, 1s. 1da.2

Offices Held

Collector, half passage money, Dover 1517-28 or later, chamberlain 1525-6, jurat 1532-d., mayor 1534-5, 1535-6; bailiff to Yarmouth 1537.3

Biography

Taxed as an artificer in September 1503, John Payntor is next met with as a witness of a fight at Dover between Robert Nethersole and Pers Young in February 1508; 30 years later, when Nethersole was in dispute with the town over his parliamentary wages, Payntor was one of the two jurats chosen to mediate between them. He had by then been in municipal life for upwards of 20 years and had represented Dover at four Brotherhoods of the Cinque Ports. When mayor in 1536 he had had some official correspondence with Cromwell. His Membership of the Parliament of 1539 was to be his last service to the town and he did not discharge it to the full. Elected with Thomas Vaughan on 23 Mar., he left Dover on 26 Apr., two days before the Parliament opened, was back there between 24 and 29 May during the first prorogation, and came home again on 10 June, 18 days before the close of the second session. For his attendance on 36 days, and the four journeys involved, 42 days in all, he was paid £4 4s. The third and last session, of April-July 1540, lasted 104 days, but as Payntor’s widow was to receive a sum of £7 as payment for go days he again fell short of maximum attendance. He could have begun late, or have paid a visit to Dover during the session, but a more probable explanation is that he died in London before the Parliament ended or made for home a dying man. The only clue to the date of his death is the payment of £3 of the £7 due to his widow by September 1540, for the will which he had made on 26 July 1537 bears no date of probate. Payntor had asked to be buried in his parish church of St. Peter and had provided for masses to be said for a year. His son Thomas and daughter Joan were to have £20 each and to share half his movables, the residue passing to his wife, whom he named an executor.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

• 1. Egerton 2093, f. 163v; Add. 29618, f. 316.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Canterbury prob. reg. C18, f. 4.
• 3. Add. 29617, ff. 262, 353; 29618, ff. 228, 296v, 300; LP Hen. VIII, iv; Egerton 2092, f. 312; 2093, ff. 156, 163v, 173v; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 222.
• 4. Add. 29617, f. 262; 29618, ff. 312v, 316v; LP Hen. VIII, vii, x; Egerton 2108, f. 25; 2092, ff. 461-1v; 2093, f. 152v.