Sir John Hopton, Kt.

John Hopton's adult life spanned the years 1430-1478, reputedly one of the most turbulent periods in English history. He, however, seems neither to have been troubled by the 'War of the Roses' nor seems to have displayed those attitudes normally attributed to the upper classes of the time: unflagging self-esteem, brutal ambition, grasping competitiveness. If his vices were not extravagant, his virtues too were unexceptional, those perhaps of a country gentlemen we usually associate with a later age. Colin Richmond's book is an attempt to place a particular English gentleman in the framework of the world he knew. It opens with the story of the landless Yorkshireman's acquisition of rich properties in Yorkshire and a discussion of those estates themselves, how they were managed, their yield; it continues with a description of John, his remarkable second wife Thomasin, their family and their life in Blythburgh.

"...Robert Swillington's son and heir Sir Roger Swilllington whose heirs had died without leaving heirs-thus Sir John 'came into his own'. In time he had secured numerous manors including those in Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire, including those his father had held for life.

With the acquisition of the Swillington estates, by 1430 Sir John had settled to his good fortune and lived a prosaic but seemingly harmonious life in Blythburgh in Suffolk. In 1440 he purchased Cockfield Hall. The Swillington lands in Yorkshire and Suffolk formed the basis for Sir John's landed wealth."