FRENCH, John I, of Hythe, Kent.

In 1372 as John French ‘junior’ he acquired a messuage and land at Lyminge, to the north of Hythe; and by 1394 he had come into possession of property in the nearby hundred of Street, on which as a Portsman he claimed exemption from taxation. Both he and Alexander Appleford suffered from assaults made by William Sunningley, the bailiff of Hythe, although in July 1395 they were able to secure Sunningley’s assurances in Chancery that he would do them no further harm, on pain of forfeiting £100.2CP25(1)107/194/1915; E179/237/57A; CCR, 1392-6, p. 477. A year or so later French was himself performing the duties of bailiff, apparently as deputy to John Dyne I.