MARTIN, John II

Although difficult to distinguish from contemporary namesakes, Martin certainly resided in the borough for which he sat in three Parliaments. A tenant of Bassetsbury, the duchy of Lancaster manor encompassing most of Wycombe, he obtained a grant of copyhold lands at Oakridge in May 1437. The grant was for life, although four years later he returned to the manor court to surrender the lands, so that William Frere might have them on like terms. In the same month, the King, in his capacity as duke of Lancaster, granted Martin the duchy’s warren and woods at Wycombe. This was in return for his ‘past and future good service’, although it is unclear if this phrase referred to an office held locally or to a more significant attachment to the Crown.1 It is impossible to prove the suggestion (in HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 578-9) that he joined the King’s household. There was more than one household servant with that very common name in the 15th century, but none can be directly linked to Wycombe. Again, it was a grant for life, although it was partly superseded some two years later when the warren was re-committed to him, this time for a term of ten years at an annual rent of 6s. 8d.2 St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, recs., XV/15/1, mm. 10d, 17, 21.

Probably still alive in the mid 1440s, when a John Martin was acting as a feoffee for two Buckinghamshire gentlemen, Edmund Hampden* and Thomas Cheyne,3 CPR, 1441-6, p. 138; CCR, 1441-7, pp. 388, 439. the MP is likely to have died before November 1448, when Walter Baker and Alice his wife, the sister and heir of John Martin, conveyed a messuage, toft and garden in Wycombe to Walter Mondy.4 CP25(1)/22/123/14. If so, he cannot have been the John Martin who served as mayor of the borough in 1449-51 and 1459-60,5 Centre for Bucks. Studies, CH1 T/6/10, 11, 14. and attested the Wycombe elections to the Parliaments of November 1449, 1450 and 1453. It would appear, therefore, that the MP had no male heirs and that the mayor (if at all related) was not a close relative.6 It has proved impossible to identify the two John Martins who attested the Bucks. election to the Parliament of 1447, or the man of that name who witnessed the return of the county’s knights of the shire in 1450, 1453 and 1467. There was a John Martin serving as clerk of the peace in Bucks. in 1460-1, although it is not known whether he was the John Martin ‘senior’ living at Whitchurch (Bucks.) in 1469. It is likewise not clear if John of Whitchurch was the John Martin who died holding lands at Burcote and Wing (both near Whitchurch) in May 1481. A Henry Martin of West Wycombe made his will in March 1494, but this makes no reference to any John Martin, whether from Wycombe or elsewhere in Bucks.: E. Stephens, Clerks of Counties, 58; CP25(1)/22/125/14; C140/79/4; Centre for Bucks. Studies, D/A/V 1, f. 18.