GORE, John

More can be added to the earlier biography.1 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 212.

In the latter part of the 1420s, Gore fell out with a cleric, Thomas Davy, who sued him for debt in the court of common pleas at Westminster. The case came to nothing because Davy had ceased to pursue it by the beginning of 1420. The plea roll entry in question refers to Gore as a merchant (or mercer) and ‘valet’ of Malmesbury.2 CP40/636, rot. 206d.

As well as standing surety for John West* in 1422, Gore was a mainpernor for newly elected MPs on at least two other occasions, on behalf of Thomas Bonham†, a knight of the shire for Wiltshire in the Parliament of 1415, and for William Coventre*, a burgess for Devizes in that of 1426. Among his own mainpernors when he was returned to the Commons were the same John West and John Nicoll II*, who stood surety for him upon his election to his third known Parliament in late 1421.3 C219/11/7; 12/6; 13/4.

As for Gore’s later career, it is likely that he was the John Gore who in 1438 served on the juries at the inquisitions held in Wiltshire following the deaths of Richard Cerne and Humphrey, son and heir of John, earl of Arundel. Yet, given that it is not known when he died, it is less clear that he was the juror of that name at a like inquisition held in the county for Sir Walter Hungerford†, Lord Hungerford, in 1449.4 CIPM, xxv. 61, 67; C139/135/30.

In spite of such uncertainty, there are good grounds for assuming that the MP was not the John Gore of Hinton found to hold lands worth £6 p.a. when assessed for the purposes of the subsidy of 1451. Hinton was near Semington, the parish of residence of the MP’s namesake and putative relative who had died in 1414, and it is likely John of Hinton was descended from the Semington man. Four other Wiltshire men surnamed Gore contributed to the same subsidy. Both William Gore senior and junior were assessed at 40s. p.a. in lands, and Thomas and another William Gore at £10 each. The three Williams feature in the subsidy return under Malmesbury, suggesting that they were from the same family as the MP.5 E179/196/118. A John Gore was associated with the two William Gores, senior and junior, in mid 1451 when all three men were jurors at sessions of oyer and terminer at Salisbury at the taking of indictments for the murder in Wiltshire of Bishop Aiscough of Salisbury at the time of Cade’s rebellion. Similarly, juries summoned to other such sessions in that city and Malmesbury in the early 1450s included John Gore and John Gore of Hinton.6 KB9/133, m. 14d; 134/1, mm. 4, 14, 32; 134/2, mm. 108, 151, 155.