Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "John Cheyne" speaker – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Sir John Cheyne or Cheney (died 1414) was a Member of Parliament and briefly the initial Speaker of the House of Commons of England in the Parliament of October 1399, summoned by the newly acclaimed Henry IV.

In 1372, he married Margaret, daughter of William, Lord Deincourt and the widow of Robert, Lord Tiptoft which brought him wealth and status. He became an esquire in the king's household and was knighted in 1378. He took part in a number of diplomatic missions and became MP for Gloucestershire in 1390, 1393, 1394 and 1399.

On the last occasion he was elected Speaker, but stood down on the ostensible grounds of ill-health, but may have been persuaded to do so by the influence of Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, who was appalled by his election and warned the clergy that Cheyne was an inveterate enemy of the contemporary church. The revolution of 1399 made for strange bedfellows. Under Henry IV, he continued to be employed on diplomatic missions, including a two-year trip to Rome in 1407.

He acquired property in Beckford, Gloucestershire as his principal estate. Being near to death, he was not implicated in the Oldcastle Rising of 1413/14, which involved a few, but far from all, of the sect, but the Cheynes of Drayton Beauchamp, Buckinghamshire, were, and they seem to have been his eventual heirs after the deaths of his sons.

Death

He died in 1414 and was buried in Beckford churchyard. He had been married a second time to Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Edward Lovetot of Southoe, Huntingdonshire with whom he had a son, John.

References

1. A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain & Ireland, Or, a Complete Register of the Hereditary Honours, Public Offices, and Persons in Office: From the Earliest Periods to the Present Time
2. J.S. Roskell, et al., History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1386-1421.
3. K.B. McFarlane, Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights.

Sources

• Saul, Nigel. "Cheyne, Sir John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/41195. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

v t e Speakers of the House of Commons (list)
House of Commons of England	14th century de Shareshull De la Mare Hungerford De la Mare Pickering Guildesborough Waldegrave Pickering Bussy Cheney Doreward Savage Redford Savage 15th century Esturmy Tiptoft Chaucer Stourton Doreward Hungerford Chaucer Redman Beauchamp Flower Hunt Chaucer Baynard Flower Russell Walton Vernon Tyrell Alington I Tyrell Russell Hunt Bowes Tyrell Burley W. Tresham Burley W. Tresham Say Popham I W. Tresham Oldhall Thorpe Charlton Wenlock T. Tresham Green Strangeways Say Alington II Wood Catesby Lovell Mordaunt Fitzwilliam Empson Drury Englefield 16th century Dudley Englefield Sheffield Nevill More Audley Wingfield Rich Hare Moyle Baker Dyer Pollard Broke Higham Cordell Gargrave T. Williams Onslow Wray Bell Popham II Puckering Snagge Coke Yelverton 17th century Croke Phelips R. Crewe Richardson T. Crewe H. Finch J. Finch Glanville Lenthall Pelham Lenthall Rous (Barebones Parliament) Lenthall Widdrington (2nd Protectorate Parliament) Chute, Long & Bampfield (3rd Protectorate Parliament) Lenthall Grimston Turnour Charlton Seymour Sawyer Seymour Gregory W. Williams Trevor Powle Trevor Foley Littleton 18th century Harley Smith
House of Commons of Great Britain	18th century Smith R. Onslow Bromley Hanmer Compton A. Onslow Cust Norton Cornwall Grenville Addington
House of Commons of the United Kingdom	19th century Addington Mitford Abbot Manners-Sutton Abercromby Shaw-Lefevre Denison Brand Peel Gully 20th century Lowther Whitley FitzRoy Brown Morrison Hylton-Foster King Lloyd Thomas Weatherill Boothroyd Martin 21st century Martin Bercow Hoyle

• Speakers of the House of Commons of England
• 1414 deaths
• People from the Borough of Tewkesbury
• English MPs 1399
• 14th-century English politicians
• English MPs 1394
• English MPs 1393
• English MPs January 1390
• 15th-century English landowners