OVERHAVEN, John

A little more may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 887.

On 19 July 1444 the commonalty of Hythe elected Overhaven as their bailiff at the annual herring fair at Yarmouth for the third time, and two days later the decision was recorded at a meeting of the Brodhull. However, not long before he was due to sail to East Anglia he died, and on 16 Aug. the commonalty chose Richard Rye* to go in his place. Hythe jurats’ acct. bk. 1441-56, H 1055, f. 42v; White and Black Bks. of Cinque Ports (Kent Rec. Ser. xix), 18. Within a year of his death Overhaven’s widow (his third wife, Margery) was presented by the hundred jury of Hythe for poor maintenance of a plot of land called ‘Bettispette’ on the highway between Hythe and New Romney. Hythe hundred ct. pprs. 1398-1445, H 1059.