RYKEDON, Richard

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 267.

Rykedon’s service as a jurat of Hythe was more extensive than previously realized. He held the office when elected to his first Parliament, and it is possible that he served continuously as such from 1416 until his death.

As a leading Portsman, Rykedon deputized for Nicholas Brockhill*, the bailiff of Hythe, on at least one occasion. He was also associated with Brockhill in 1446, when they and the town clerk, Henry Skinner, rode to a meeting at the house of John Greenford*, one of Hythe’s retained lawyers and steward of Dover castle. Hythe jurats’ acct. bk. 1441-56, H 1055, f. 78. It was as a Portsman that Rykedon claimed freedom from parliamentary taxation from at least 1421. The exemption he received in that year was for Worth hundred only but by 1430 he had interests in Folkestone hundred as well, and by 1448 he was also claiming exemption in that of Heane. E179/124/93, 110; 225/48; 229/140.

During the early 1430s Rykedon and John atte Dawne* (who would sit with him in the Parliament of 1433) quarrelled with the vicar of West Hythe, a dispute that was referred to arbitration. H 1018, f. 104v.

Rykedon’s widow outlived him by about five years. On 22 Jan. 1459 probate on her estate was granted to John* and Thomas Honywood* and others. PRC 32/2, f. 5.