John Maynard was born at the end of the 16th century at Rotherfield and was a student at Queen's College in 1616 and later at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He entered into holy orders and presented to the vicarage of Mayfield around 1625. At the breaking out of the civil wars, John Maynard avowed himself a puritan, and boldly preached the views of his party. In 1643 he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Sussex for the ejectment of ignorant and scandalous ministers and schoolmasters. In 1662, as a non-conforming minister, he was deprived of his benefice as Mayfield's vicar, despite being held in high esteem by his flock and he died three years later in Mayfield.