PYJON, Roger, of Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Roger was a nephew of John Pyjon, parliamentary burgess for Shaftesbury in the 1350s. His trade is not known, but evidently he had some commercial dealings in London for in May 1379 he took out a royal pardon of outlawry for his failure to answer a ‘moneour’ [money changer] of the City on charges of trespass brought in the common pleas. He appeared occasionally as a witness to conveyances of property in Shaftesbury, and in the spring of 1390 he served on the local jury which gave evidence to the royal commissioners investigating the administration of St. Anne’s chantry in the conventual church.CPR, 1377-81, p. 320; Shaftesbury Recs. ed. Mayo, 76 (D11, 12); C145/245/11. Both Roger and his cousin, Thomas, paid rent to Robert Fovent for property in the town, though in Roger’s case this amounted to only 2s.6d. a year. His tenure of a messuage in St. Lawrence’s parish involved him in a suit at the Dorchester assizes in August 1413, when he was described as ‘Roger Pyjon, senior’. He was still living in 1418-19 when Roger ‘junior’, perhaps his son, was King’s bailiff of Shaftesbury.Egerton 3135, ff. 118-19; JUST 1/1527 m. 6; Shaftesbury Recs. 76 (D19, 22).