| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Wareham | [1414 (Apr.)] |
John was possibly a descendant of William Mayhew, MP for Wareham in 1348, and of Roger Mayhew, MP in 1362, 1363 and 1368 and twice mayor later in his career.1Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. lxv. 95, 103, 104; CCR, 1385-9, p. 292; CFR, ix. 313; x. 172. Roger was a fisherman (E179/103/48). Doubtless also a kinsman of Ralph Mayhew, the bailiff of 1415-16, he was most likely the man who in 1434 conveyed to John Stephens a tenement in St. Martin’s parish, and who, five years later, when his daughter Eleanor, wife of Thomas Leycer of Studland, sold her messuage, shop and land in Wareham, was referred to as ‘lately of Whitclif’. John Mayhew alias Parentild, clerk (d.1459/60), who held property in Wareham and land nearby at Stoborough, was this John’s son.2E368/188; Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. lxv. 104; Dorset Feet of Fines, ii. 356; PCC 18 Stokton.
He is to be distinguished from at least two other men of the same name: John Mayhew the younger, mayor of Corfe in 1387-8 (son of the John who was murdered in 1374); and a mason who was working on Purbeck marble in Westminster abbey in 1393: CPR, 1370-4; p. 485; 1391-6; p. 244; CCR, 1377-81; p. 366; JUST 1/1502 mm. 50, 56.
