KENT, John II, of Bedford.

Kent’s name first appears on the Bedford burgess roll of 1399; and in the following year (as ‘of Bedfordshire’) he offered sureties to the sheriff for a prisoner in the town gaol. Although he evidently sat only once in the House of Commons, Kent attested the indentures for the borough elections to the Parliaments of May 1413, November 1414 (as mayor), May and December 1421, 1425, 1426, 1427, 1429, 1433 and 1435. In July 1413 he acquired a bakery in Bedford, but he is nowhere described as having been a victualler of any kind. He may, however, be the John Kent who, in April 1430, became a feoffee for life of the manor of Cardington and the advowson of a third part of Houghton Conquest church for Sir Baldwin Pigot. Four years later a man of the same name obtained a quitclaim from Thomas Browning of Astwick, Bedfordshire, of all the property belonging to the latter’s father in the same county.CCR, 1399-1402, p. 285; C219/11/1, 4, 12/5, 6, 13/3-5, 14/1, 4, 5; Bedford Town Hall, DDX 67/55; CPR, 1429-36, p. 58; CCR, 1429-36, p. 308.