JOHN3 is the poor clerk at Soler Hall, Cambridge, in The Reeve's Tale. He comes from Strother, which means "a place overgrown with bushwood," a village far in the north. He swears by St. Cuthbert, the Northumbrian saint. John and Alayn take their corn to be ground at the village mill, but Symkyn the miller succeeds in stealing their meal. He lets their horse Bayard into a field of mares, and while John and Alayn try to capture the horse, he helps himself to their meal. Because it is too late to return to Cambridge, the students spend the night with the miller and his family, which includes his wife, his daughter Malyne, and a baby. During the night Alayn gets into Malyne's bed, while John, through the ruse of removing the baby's cradle, gets the miller's wife into his bed. By robbing Malyne of her maidenhead and by cuckolding Symkyn, they get even for the theft of their corn. [Alayn: Malyne: Symkyn]
The name appears twice initially, RvT 4013, 4020; twenty-one times in medial positions, RvT 4025, 4026, 4037, 4040, 4044, 4071, 4084, 4108, 4109, 4114, 4127, 4169, 4177, 4180, 4188, 4199, 4228, 4262, 4284, 4292, 4316; and six times in final rhyming position, RvT 4018, 4091, 4160, 4198, 4259, 4295.