Famous English Canonists: III John Ayton (or Acton) U.J.D. († 1349)

Abstract

Another well known name from the golden age of the Cambridge law school was that of John ‘of Aton’. The name, however, requires some comment before proceeding to the man. In the printed edition of his work he is ‘de Athon:’ or ‘de Aton’, which Stubbs rendered as Ayton, on the assumption that it derived from the place in Yorkshire. Maitland said it was convenient to follow this spelling, though he pointed out that the papal chancery addressed him as ‘Johannes Johannis de Acton’. ‘Acton’ was used in theDictionary of National Biography, and is now the preferred spelling, though more cautious writers have adopted the neutral ‘Athon’. In view of the strong East Anglian bias of the Cambridge law school in the time of Bishop Bateman, it is possible that the name derived from Acton in Suffolk. But that is only so if the papal chancery may be trusted; Athon is not itself a variant of Acton. If, on the other hand, the spelling in the treatise is preferred – and it certainly seems more common in all the manuscripts – Ayton (formerly Aton) remains a more likely identification than any other. Certainly the doctor's connections in his professional career seem to have been with the north rather than with East Anglia.