John Haynes
Mayor of Oxford 1514/15 and 1515/16
John Haynes (or Heyns/Heynes/Haynys/Haynez) was an Oxford baker who lived at the Bell in St Mary Magdalen parish, and was also a vintner.
Between 1498 and 1502 a number of cases were submitted to Haynes for arbitration by the Chancellor’s Court , and he also stood surety for a number of people appearing in that court.
Haynes was elected Bailiff in 1504. He lost in an election for the post of Alderman in 1511, but the matter of his election was referred to arbitration.
On 29 September 1514 Haynes became Mayor, and was re-elected the following year.
On 16 April 1517 the University of Oxford wrote a letter to Cardinal Wolsey, stating that John Haynes (described as nequissimus civis) had armed four turbulent Benedictines and three lay people in order to kill one of the proctors at midnight, and that having failed to appear upon citation, he was excommunicated and banished from the community.
A further letter of 2 November the same year from the University to Wolsey stated that, in compliance with Wolsey’s wish, they had modified the sentence passed on John Haynes and in son so that neither would be much hurt, but that although they had determined that both should remain at Oxford in order to satisfy the injured, Haynes had without provocation left Oxford.