He and the village gave the name Cavendish to the aristocratic families of the Dukedoms of Devonshire, Newcastle and Portland.

John Cavendish was descended from the Norman noble Robert de Guernon, who lived during the reign of Henry I and who gave a large amount of property to the Abbey of Gloucester.

[1] A little later a son of a Robert de Gernon, Roger de Gernon, of Grimston Hall, in Trimley St Martin, Suffolk, married the heiress of John Potton of Cavendish and obtained a landed estate in the lordship and manor of Cavendish.

[2][3] Sir John Cavendish married Alice de Odingsells, became a lawyer and was appointed as a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1371 and Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1372.

[5] On 15 June 1381, he was killed during the Peasants' Revolt at Bury St Edmunds.