biography text
Cotyngham was present at the elections for Wycombe to the Parliaments of 1416 (Mar.), 1417, 1420, 1421 (Dec.) and 1422. On behalf of Thomas Hampden of Wycombe he took on the trusteeship of land in Totteridge, Bassetbury and elsewhere, but in 1416 relinquished possession to Thomas’s son, John (the future mayor of Wycombe). Four years later, in September 1420, along with several other burgesses, he was granted four marks annual rent from a tenement called the Newe Inn, adjoining the close of the rectory of Wycombe. In 1423 he is recorded as holding land in the manor of Bassetbury.1C219/11/8, 12/2, 4, 6, 13/1; HMC 5th Rep. 562-4; St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, recs. XV/15/1 m. 4.