GRYGGE, John, of Midhurst, Suss.

There is nothing to indicate that Grygge belonged to the family of this name established at Wivelsfield near Hayward’s Heath in the fourteenth century, Suss. Arch. Collns. xxxv. 4; Add. Chs. 24684-90. nor that he was either of the two John Grygges of Arlington in east Sussex who appealed to the archbishop’s court at Canterbury against excommunication by Bishop Rede of Chichester in 1413. CCR, 1413-19, p. 83. Much more likely, he was the man who in the early part of the fifteenth century held as a tenant of the earl of Arundel a cottage in Rogate (some five miles from Midhurst) and land elsewhere in the same part of west Sussex. Two Fitzalan Survs. (Suss. Rec. Soc. lxvii), 138, 149. A tanner, he was living in Midhurst at least a year before his election to Parliament, for in March 1422, Thomas Westlond* conveyed to him three burgages in North Street for a yearly rent of 10s. payable for the lifetimes of Westlond and his wife. W. Suss. RO, Cowdray mss, 4455. Later, he fell out with Sir John Bohun, the lord of the borough and manor of Midhurst, who brought a suit for trespass against him in the court of common pleas. A jury from the county, summoned to appear in Hilary term 1431, failed to do so, and no more is recorded about the case. CP40/680, rot. 165d.