WOGHERE, John

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 888.

Woghere served on the jury at East Grinstead which in 1416 provided evidence at the inquisition post mortem of Thomas St. Cler†, a member of a prominent Sussex family.3 C138/19/25. On 6 Mar. 1424, at the proof of age of St. Cler’s nephew, another Thomas, the heir to the principal family estates, he said that he could verify the date of the young man’s baptism (in 1402), as he had wedded his wife Margery in the same church at East Grinstead at the following feast of Hilary, and knew that they had been married over 21 years.4 C139/13/50. In 1431, called ‘yeoman’, Woghere was sued in the court of common pleas by Nicholas Carew†, the former knight of the shire for Surrey, for a debt of £5. Following Carew’s death a year later he acted as a juror at the post mortem held at East Grinstead.5 CP40/680, rot. 283d; C139/51/1.

Subsequently, Woghere appeared as a defendant in a number of lawsuits, for instance in 1433 for illegally seizing the goods of John Hasilden (although he claimed to be recovering rental arrears for the owners of a messuage in East Grinstead), and in 1435 when sued for a debt of £10 by the prior of Lewes. Then, in Hilary term 1440 he was attached in the King’s bench to answer for breaking into property at Mitcham in Surrey and abducting a servant. As a consequence of his failure to answer the charge he was outlawed, and some of his possessions were seized by the feodary of the duchy of Lancaster, to which East Grinstead pertained.6 CP40/691, rots. 267, 543; 699, rot. 623d; KB27/715, rot. 3; DL29/442/7116.