The following information has been extracted from Newcourt's Repertorium, Vols 1 and 2.
John Chicheley was instituted as Vicar of Great St Mary's, Sawbridgeworth on 28 August 1432.
The following year he exchanged the living of Great St Mary's for that of Thorley, where he was collated Rector on 17 April 1433. John resigned from Thorley sometime before 31 July 1434, when William Northwold was instituted as Rector in his place.
John was collated to the Rectory of St Mary's, Colchester on 1 March 1435. Known as the Church of St Mary-at-the-Walls because it was immediately adjacent to the city wall, it was to be badly damaged during the siege of Colchester (13 June - 27 August 1648), when it was used as a gun emplacement by Royalists during the Civil War. The tower of the Norman Church survived and remains to this day, but the rest was destroyed and rebuilt in 1713-14. In 1978 the Church was declared redundant, and in 1980 reopened as Colchester Arts Centre.
John remained at Colchester for a little over one-and-a-half years, when he exchanged this Rectory for that of St Botolph's in Hadstock, Essex where he was instituted on 22 November 1436. He resigned from St Botoloph's sometime before 11 October 1439 when William Wright succeeded him as Rector.
Philip Hargrave
January 2012