John Juyn

Sir John Juyn SL (died 24 March 1440) was a British judge. He was the son of John Juhyne, a wool merchant from Bristol, and his wife Margery. After the death of his father in 1390, Juyn inherited his estates in Bristol, Bedminster and Knowle, and his contacts with the Bristolian merchant community helped with his career; between 1422 and 1438 he served as Recorder of Bristol, and also acted as a feoffee for many of the city's leading merchants. His first appearance in records was in 1407, as a mainpernor for some Bristolian merchants sued for debt by London. He was appointed serjeant-at-law in 1415, but avoided taking this position and its financial burden until 1418. Between 1416 and 1422 he served as legal counsel for the Duchy of Lancaster, settling the matter of the Bohun estate, dividing it between Henry V and Lady Anne Hastings, and also served as counsel to Thomas, Duke of Clarence between 1418 and 1420.

He travelled the Western circuit as an Assize justice between 1422 and 1424 before switching to the Home Counties circuit following his double-appointment as both Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1436 (he was Lord Chief Baron only from 5 May 1423 until that point). In May 1426 he was knighted in Parliament, and acted as a trier of petitions there from 1425 to 1439. During the same period he was frequently summoned to advise the King's council, most notably for 15 days at the November 1426 Reading council where he helped draw up laws to keep the peace between Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort. For most of his life he lived in Somerset, and as such served on every Peace Commission between 1419 and his death, also raising loans for Henry IV in the 1420s and 1430s. He married twice, first to Edith, who died childless, and second to Alice (Alis), daughter of Bythemoor (Nicholas de la Moor, of Moorhayes, Cullompton, Devon. There was two daughters Alis Juyn, and Isabel Juyn, the latter whom married Robert Kenn) in 1436, . On 9 February of the same year he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, still retaining his position in the Exchequer, and on 20 January 1439 he was made Chief Justice of the King's Bench, finally leaving his joint positions in the Courts of Exchequer and Common Pleas. He held this position for only a year before becoming ill, dying on 24 March 1440.

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