but whether this is a mistake by the recorder or whether two men of the same name were returned is uncertain.
[1] G.R. Park, "The Parliamentary Representation of Yorkshire, 1886," pp. 266 and 283.
Among the High Sheriffs of Yorkshire in the fourteenth and fifteenth Centuries were
1390 Richard II. Jacobus de Pykering.
1394 " " "
1398 " " "
1432 Henry VI. Sir Richard de Pykering.
1450 " Sir James de Pykering knt.
In 1311 Johannes de Cropton was one of the members for Scarborough in Edward II.'s Parliament of that year.
Pickering was held as royal property by William the Conqueror, and with a few short intervals it has remained crown property until the present day. It is therefore no matter for surprise to find that several of the Plantagenet kings came to hunt in the forest. It appears to have been a royal possession in the time of Henry I., and also in February 1201, when King John visited the castle,[1] for a charter granted by him to the nuns of Wykeham is dated at Pickering. In 1248 William Lord d'Acre was made keeper of the castle, but towards the close of his reign Henry III. (1216-1272) gave the castle, manor, and forest of Pickering to his son Edmund Crouchback, and from him the property has descended through the Lancastrian branch of the royal family, so that it now forms part of the possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster.
[1] Young's "History of Whitby," vol. ii. p. 733.
From other records we find that King John was also at Pickering for at least a day in August 1208 and in March 1210.
In 1261 Pickering Castle was held against Henry III. by Hugh le Bigod, and some of the wardrobe accounts of the reign of Edward II. have reference to a visit to Pickering. The place must have had painful memories for the king in connection with the capture of his favourite Piers Gaveston at Scarborough Castle in 1312. This visit was, however, separated from that fateful event by eleven years.
"3 August 1323, at Pickering. Paid to William Hunt, the King's huntsman, by way of gift at the direction of Harsike--£1; to Agnes, wife of Roger de Mar, porter of the chamber, gift--10s.: to Guillot de la Pittere, groom of the Queen's chamber, gift--£1; to Dighton Wawayn, valet of Robert Wawayn, carrying letters from his master to the king, gift--2s. To John, son of Ibote of Pickering, who followed the king a whole day when he hunted the stag in Pickering chase, gift by order--10s.; to Walter de Seamer, Mariner, keeper of the ship called the Magdalen, of which Cook atte Wose was master, a gift, the money being given to John Harsike to give him-- £1.