GILLINGHAM, John

Coming from an old Rochester family with a long parliamentary pedigree, John was a kinsman, possibly the son, of William Gillingham, who had represented the city in the Parliament of 1391. His putative grandfather, another William Gillingham†, had done so four times between 1377 and 1388, while another probable ancestor, Thomas Gillingham, had not only sat for Rochester twice but had also been knight of the shire for Kent in 1346.1 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 188-9. The first reference to John in connexion with the affairs of Rochester was his election in October 1422 to Henry VI’s first Parliament. During its initial session he demised an annual rent of £4 6s. 8d. from a tenement in the city called the George atte Hope to a local man, John Finchinfield.2 CCR, 1422-9, p. 193. He also held property in ‘Horslane’, for which he paid a token rent of three hens to the wardens of Rochester bridge: Rochester Bridge Trust, wardens’ accts. 1435-6, F 1/40. In 1427 and again in 1431 he was present at the return of the knights of the shire in the county court held at Rochester, and in April 1432 was himself returned for a second time as the city’s MP. Immediate re-election to the Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster in July 1433 followed.

Gillingham probably made his living through the traffic that passed through Rochester on its way to the Channel ports or on pilgrimage to Canterbury. His interest in the George atte Hope, almost certainly an inn, indicates his occupation as an ostler, the description given him when in Michaelmas term 1433, while he was a sitting MP, he was twice sued in the court of common pleas for debt. He failed to appear to answer one of the charges and when the sheriff of Kent was ordered to attach him, he was not to be found in that county, perhaps because he was attending Parliament at Westminster.3 CP40/691, rots. 153d, 279d. Interestingly, he was also described as ‘gentleman’ in a third debt suit then pending in that court: ibid. rot. 13. In the earlier parliamentary session, during the Trinity term, he had been sued in King’s bench, along with Robert Spondon of Strood, by one Richard Downes, who had accused them of stealing four horses and refusing to return them unless Downes paid a fine of 40s. Gillingham also appeared as a plaintiff in King’s bench at the same time, suing one John Conghurst of Hawkhurst, Kent, gentleman, for stealing certain goods and chattels that had been committed to Gillingham’s safe-keeping.4 KB27/689, rots. 24, 64.

Gillingham died shortly after the Parliament was dissolved. He was dead by 26 Apr. 1434, when his widow, Joan, borrowed money as a woman sole.5 CP40/705, rot. 202d. Within a few months she married Richard Thornbury* a London draper, who by virtue of the property in Rochester she brought with her in marriage was qualified to represent the city in the Parliament of 1435. As Gillingham’s executrix Joan was sued in the court of common pleas in 1438 by two Devon merchants seeking payment of a debt of £14 which they had attempted to recover from the MP five years earlier.6 CP40/711, rot. 13d.