GRYFFYN, John, of Dorchester and ’Middleton’, Dorset.

When, in 1402, Gryffyn acquired a burgage with a curtilage in ‘Puselane’, Dorchester, he was then described as ‘of Middleton’. There can be no doubt, however, that he mostly lived in Dorchester. From 1409, he frequently acted as a witness to property transactions there, and in 1413 he was chosen bailiff, serving while in office as a Member of the Parliament at Leicester. In September 1414 he served on the jury of 24 burgesses which passed a set of bye-laws in the town court.

So far as his property in Dorchester is concerned, he shared with his wife three burgages and a barn in ‘Puselane’ which, the barn apart, they leased in 1417 (for 6s.8d. a year) to William Fytheler, Margaret’s son by her previous marriage. When Margaret died that same year, Gryffyn was bequeathed a burgage which, as she had stipulated, was sold a few months later, the proceeds being disposed of for charitable purposes.2Ibid. 107, 150, 217, 223-4.