MOYNES, John, of Bridport, Dorset.

Moynes—a leading member of Bridport corporation—was returned to Elizabeth’s first Parliament for Melcombe at the instance of the 2nd Earl of Bedford, who in January 1559 wrote thanking the mayor and corporation of Melcombe Regis for letting him have the nomination. The borough was excused payment of his wages. Nothing is known of Moynes’s family. He may have come originally from Somerset, but was settled in Dorset by the reign of Edward VI. He owned tenements in Weymouth and other property in the county.

For the subsidy of 1560 he was rated at Bridport on £10 in goods: the heralds’ visitation of 1565 mentions him as one of the principal burgesses. No later reference to him has been found.2HMC 5th Rep. 582; Cal. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. ii. 185, 222, 267; PRO, cal. of enrolled deeds, Easter 7 Edw. VI; E179/104/216; Genealogist, ii. 224.