John de Fressingfield

Sir John de Fressingfield (c.1260-c.1323) was an English knight, judge, diplomat and Privy Councillor, much of whose career was spent in Ireland.

[3] Seman is said to have been a peasant, and Walter seems to have been a man without landed estates or influential connections, so John's rise in the world was due entirely to his own ability.

His first official position was Keeper of the Writs and Rolls of the Bench, as the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) was usually called then.

[4] He applied for permission to endow a chantry at his manor of Lynn, which he had bought from the de Pitchford family, with what result is unclear.

[2] Despite many indications, especially his large-scale acquisition of lands in that kingdom, that he was planning to put down permanent roots in Ireland, he returned rather suddenly to England in 1308.

[4] Possibly he was hoping that the favour he had enjoyed in the previous reign would continue under King Edward II, preferably in the form of a permanent seat on the English Bench.

[4] He sat on several commissions of oyer and terminer, mainly in London, Norfolk and Suffolk, and was sent on diplomatic missions to Gascony and to the Papal Court at Avignon.

[2] From about 1317 his career was clearly on a downward path: he had no influential patrons in England and had evidently lost touch with Wogan, who retired as Justiciar of Ireland in 1313.