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CROSS, John, of Guildford, Surr.
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Constituency
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Family and Education
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Biography
Cross is known to have owned at least one tenement in Guildford during and possibly before the early 1380s, gradually adding to his property by a series of purchases outside the borough. In November 1392, for example, he made a conveyance to William Balchild of land in Loseley, Artington, Compton and Godalming, Surrey, which he had bought from three local men. On 19 June 1395, being then described as ‘of Guildford’, he obtained letters of protection for a year to be spent on the King’s service in the company of Sir William le Scrope, justiciar of Ireland. Three days later — probably because of his impending departure — he settled all his property in Guildford, Godalming and Compton on a new group of feoffees. His activities after this date remain obscure, although it is possible that he was the John Cross who, in March 1411, was commissioned to arrest Peter Maberdeyn and other malefactors and bring them before Chancery.
C136/48/68; Guildford Mun. Room, LM338/36; CPR, 1391-6, p. 575; 1408-13, p. 315; CCR, 1392-6, pp. 426, 471; O. Manning and W. Bray, Surr. i. 94.