WIMPOLE (WYNPOL), John, of Canterbury, Kent.

Wimpole was assessed for the poll tax levied in December 1380 as living in Canterbury with his wife, Sarah, and two domestic servants. His contribution of 6s. shows that the assessors considered him to be quite well-to-do.E179/123/50. Such prosperity as he enjoyed was owed not only to his business as a draper but also to the lands which Sarah had brought him on their marriage. These included the manor of Kingsnorth, situated some 15 miles from the city, which together with 100 acres of land in the same part of Kent she and her husband had sold to Sir Robert Bealknap the judge in 1378. Two years later the Wimpoles had leased out other of Sarah’s holdings, notably some 400 acres of farmland at Ruckinge and elsewhere, for an annual rent of 20 marks payable for their lifetimes. In Canterbury itself the couple owned a house in St. Alphage’s parish, premises in that of St. Mary Bredin, acquired in 1386, and a messuage which they sold to Richard Water in 1393. is not recorded after the completion of his purchase of yet more property in the city in the summer of 1395.E. Hasted, Kent, vii. 585-6; xi. 138; CP25(1)108/208/15, 209/31, 213/150, 109/228/512, 110/242/855, 245/932; O/A1, f. 6d.