page_title: John Cokayne (died 1438)
section_title: Landowner
hierarchical_section_title: John Cokayne (died 1438) / Landowner
caption_attribution_description: Relief map of Derbyshire, UK. Equirectangular map projection on WGS 84 datum, with N/S stretched 165% Geographic limits: West: 2.06W East: 1.10W North: 53.55N South: 52.69N
context_page_description: Sir John Cockayne (died 1438) was an English soldier, politician and landowner whose wealth made him a major force in the affairs of Derbyshire under the House of Lancaster. After numerous acts of criminality in concert with other Midlands landowners, he became a member of the Lancastrian affinity centred on John of Gaunt and a supporter of Henry IV. He fought in two campaigns of the Hundred Years War but his violence and lawlessness continued and he was decidedly out of favour during the reign of Henry V. With power less concentrated in the early years of Henry VI, he was able to serve three terms as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests and to wield considerable power and influence. He represented Derbyshire no less than nine times and Warwickshire twice in the House of Commons of England.
context_section_description: In 1412 Cokayne's income from his Derbyshire lands was put at £40, compared with an annuity of £60 he was still drawing from Ashbourne ex concessione domini regis pro termino vite sue (as a grant from his lord the king to the end of his life) as a Lancastrian retainer.
  The extension of his estates through the Harthill inheritance was for long uncertain. At the death of his grandfather, Richard Harthill, there was still a male heir in the family, a ten-year-old grandson called William, who was intended to inherit the majority of the estates. Richard had appointed feoffees to ease the transition, although there were reports that the tenants had no connection with the feoffees and an inquisition post mortem decided that Pooley and the rest ought to escheat to the king during William's minority. In March 1401 an inquiry was held at Tamworth, Staffordshire, into the age of William and it transpired that he was 21, old enough to take over his estates, although he his wardship was still held by Roger Sapurton. Only with the death of William sine prole in the summer of 1402 could it be certain that his aunt Elizabeth, Sir John Cokayne's mother, would inherit. However, matters were still far from straightforward. For example, an inquisition at Tamworth on 10 August found that Elizabeth's stepmother, Mary, was still alive and held a third of the estate at Newton Regis. After the death of Edmund Cokayne in 1403, Elizabeth married John Francis (also rendered Franceys and Fraunceys) of Ingleby, apparently in the same year, She and Francis settled the manor of Harthill on Sir John Cockayne at about the time of their marriage but Elizabeth seems to have been in no hurry to hand over any more of her inheritance to her son. The quitclaim dated 21 April 1416 but issued on 5 May 1417, after her death, listed the manors and properties that made up the Harthill inheritance.
  During the final two decades of his life, but only then, Cokayne was a major landowner with a substantial collection of properties in three counties.
caption: Relief map of Derbyshire to show locations of the main estates inherited by Sir John Cokayne from his father (blue dot) and mother (red dots).
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