SAVEYN, John

It is likely that Saveyn was a native of Colchester, since a namesake from the borough made his will in 1414-15,3 Colchester bor. recs., ‘Oath bk.’, D/B 5 R1, f. 75d. The will has not survived. but it is unclear whether he was the ‘John Saveye junior’ who in 1412 sued three local skinners for debt in the borough court.4 Colchester ct. roll 1411-12, D/B Cr38, mm. 35, 35d, 37. A resident of the parish of St. Botolph, he owned a tavern in the town and he incurred fines on several occasions in the late 1440s for breaching the local assize of wine.5 Colchester ct. rolls 1447-9, 1451-2, D/B 5 Cr62, mm. 1, 2d, 11d, 18d; 63, mm. 2d, 8, 15; 64, m. 13d. A surety for three of the newly elected serjeants of the borough in September 1434, he and another burgess, Robert Smyth, came to the borough court in the following May, to acknowledge that they owed William Petworth* 60 marks.6 Colchester ct. roll 1434-5, D/B 5 Cr52, mm. 1, 21d. He participated in the election of the borough’s officers of 1437-8,7 Ibid. 1437-8, D/B 5 Cr55, m. 1. and he served a term as a chamberlain in the early 1440s, probably in 1441-2. He was also a councillor and alderman and one of the first burgesses to serve as a j.p. for the town, an office introduced by Henry VI’s charter of 1447.

Saveyn was elected to his only Parliament late in his career, for he died in 1451 or early 1452. In his will, dated 28 Apr. 1451, he asked to be buried in St. Botolph’s churchyard. He awarded his widow Isabel an estate for life in all of his holdings, save for seven houses next to St. John’s abbey, in Colchester and its liberty, directing that his son and namesake should succeed to them after her death. He set aside the houses to provide accommodation for 13 poor people, whom he asked to pray for the souls of himself and his benefactors. He appointed Isabel and the younger John his executors and named two fellow townsmen, John Wright* and John Horndon, as supervisors of the will.8 Ibid. D/B 5 Cr64, m. 13d. Isabel was not long a widow, for by mid 1456 she had married John Grenehill. From Chishall on the Cambridgeshire-Essex boundary, Grenehill became a burgess of Colchester in May 1457.9 Colchester ct. rolls 1455-7, D/B 5 Cr66, m. 27d; 67, m. 19; VCH Essex, ix. 49.