PAGYN, John

Pagyn appears to have been a Hereford attorney in a small way of business. He first appears in the records in 1436, when one of the leading citizens, George Breinton*, nominated him as his attorney to deliver seisin of his lands to feoffees, and he acted in a similar capacity for Breinton’s son, Thomas*, and others in 1457. Another prominent citizen, John Welford*, employed him in a different capacity, entrusting him with delivering a writ of certiorari to the mayor in the autumn of 1457. He may also have found another client in one of the county gentry, Henry Oldcastle*, with whom, in 1456, he sued the mayor, Richard Green, for illegally taking their goods to the value of £40.1 C146/315; Herefs. RO, Hereford city recs. MT/V/17; CP40/783, rot. 145. These scattered records suggest that Pagyn was of little account in his own right, and there is no evidence to contradict this impression. He was not among the Hereford men assessed for the subsidy of 1450-1, and his election to Parliament for the city on 2 Jan. 1442 was probably the highpoint of a modest career.2 E179/117/64; C219/15/2. He was, however, alive as late as 1469, when he joined with other feoffees of Maurice Newton in conveying a messuage in Widemarsh Street to Welford and others.3 Hereford city recs. MT/I/10, VIII/15-17.