ROMAYN, John, of Leominster, Herefs.

The Romayns were a prominent Leominster family. John’s grandfather, Philip, had represented the borough in Parliament six times between 1332 and 1348, and his father, John, had done likewise in 1360. They had frequently appeared as witnesses to local conveyances, and in about 1346 Philip had granted property in the town to the abbot of Reading and the dean of Leominster.G.F. Townsend, Leominster, 41; Cott. Domitian AIII, ff. 200-4; CIMisc. iv. 368; CFR, x. 182. In October 1395 John senior and his son quitclaimed to feoffees, who included Richard Boterell, the constable of Wigmore castle, a shop in the High Street with annual rents of 9s. from nearby Moreton. The younger man entered into recognizances for £40 with Hugh Mawne of Stoke, at the Shrewsbury Staple in May 1404. Eight years later he was recorded as the patron of a local sub-deacon. Otherwise, however, he remains an obscure figure.Add. Ch. 7032; Shrewsbury Guildhall, box II, 67, f. 50; Reg. Mascall (Canterbury and York Soc. xxi), 153. It was possibly this John Romayn who acquired the Berks, manors of Hartridge, Titcomb and Haselwick in 1415-16, made his will on 22 Apr. 1419 and died on 7 May 1420. He had m. bef. July 1416, Isabel (d.1453), who after his death married (2) Thomas Wintershall (d.1420) and (3) Nicholas Banaster. However, his nearest heir was said at his death to be the same Thomas Wintershall, the great-grandson of Juliana, sis. of John Romayn, the father of Richard, father of John, which does not tally with what is otherwise recorded of the genealogy of the Leominster MP: CPR, 1416-22, pp. 35, 379; CCR, 1419-22, pp. 160, 180, 246; C138/51/92; PCC 54 Marche; VCH Berks. iv. 209.