After this date, no more is heard of him with certainty. Whether his estates were ever returned to him is a moot point; it is tempting to believe that they were not, for in 1405 a John Fort can be found serving as an archer in the expeditionary army led by Sir Richard Arundell. This army was dominated by men from the squirearchy of the southern principality and the march. Perhaps the most interesting of these was Thomas Bannow, merchant and burgess of Carmarthen who had in 1403 been captured at sea and subsequently ransomed by the Scots, only to be robbed and imprisoned by the townsmen of Walsall on his way home. Other notable figures include Sir John Scudamore, William Sourdeval of Brecon, John Pichard of Blaenllyfni, Brecon, John Somerys of Dinas Powys, Glamorgan; such examples could easily be multiplied.
[19] John Fort could well have been listed among such men, the
gentiles homines of their communities, descended from English and Welsh roots. Though remaining loyal in a time of rebellion, his circumstances appear greatly reduced. John’s eventual fate is not known, but it appears that he died without heirs, a fate he shared with his brother Thomas for their estates passed to their bastard uncle, Thomas Fort of Robertston West, Pembrokeshire (d. 1432).
[20]
