John Doreward

John Doreward (died 1420) was a Serjeant-at-law and Speaker of the House of Commons of England.

Early life Outside the affairs of parliament, little is known of Doreward. He was apparently the son of William Doreward of Bocking, Essex who was a member of parliament for Essex in the eighteenth and twentieth parliaments of Edward III. According to James Alexander Manning, he was "of Dorewood Hall", and the name survives in 'Durward's', at Bocking in Essex and in 'Durward's Hall', between Witham and Kelvedon. His second wife was Isabella Baynard of Messing, as named "Isabella" on his monument in St Mary's Church, Bocking, a daughter of Richard Baynard. He had at least one son, John Doreward, who in 1440 founded an almshouse to be called the Maison Dieu of the town of Bocking, and later known as the Hospital of Bocking. Among its purposes was to pray for the soul of John Doreward, the founder's father.

Political life

Doreward was appointed High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire for 1399 and elected knight of the shire (MP) six times for Essex (1395, Jan 1397, 1399, Jan 1404, May 1413 and April 1414). He was elected Speaker of the House in 1399 and 1413.

The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, vol. III, p. 18 ... In the case of Sir John Cheyne, the Speaker elected in 1399, the excuse of ill-health was accepted by the king as valid; the clergy had in fact objected to the nomination; Sir John Cheyne withdrew, and John Doreward was chosen in his place.

The chronicler Robert Fabyan, writing about a hundred years after Doreward's first election as Speaker, gives a more obscure version of events:

The Parliament was almost identical in makeup to the previous parliament held under Richard II, where thanks to the political manoeuvring of Sir John Bussy many of Parliament's powers had been stripped from them and given instead to a committee. The summoning of this parliament showed good political judgement on the part of the de facto king, Henry IV; in the words of Manning " could not have hoped to assemble a body of legislators less favourable to the captive monarch"