CARTHEU, Peter

The Cartheu family took its name from the hamlet of Carthew (or Kerthu) in St. Issey. Little is known of Peter, but at the time of his return to Parliament he may have lived in the household of his kinsman, Thomas Cartheu, the parson of Blisland, some miles to the north-west of Liskeard. It was here that in December 1433 he was set upon by the violent Richard Tregoose*, who dragged him off to Respryn (in St. Winnow), from there to the mansion of Walter Carminowe, and eventually to Bofarnel (in St. Winnow), keeping him a prisoner for three days and nights. Tregoose had Cartheu bound to a ladder, and summoning a servant, Thomas Lesnewith, with a great knife, threatened to cut off his testicles. Cartheu, who later claimed nearly to have died of fright, was only too glad to buy his freedom with a fine of 200 marks.1 KB27/729, rex rot. 1; H. Kleineke, ‘Why the West was Wild’, The Fifteenth Cent. iii, ed. Clark, 87. The background to the attack may be sought in Cartheu’s association with Tregoose’s adversary Robert Borlase. The latter, who for several decades was locked in an acrimonious quarrel over mining rights with Tregoose, together with Cartheu and Simon Killygrew of Arwennek plotted to have their opponent indicted before the Cornish bench on charges of cattle theft and of the rape of a girl of 14, and in early 1435 appears to have succeeded in having him imprisoned. Litigation over the issue was ongoing in the spring of 1449 and the outcome is uncertain.2 CP40/732, rot. 343; 734, rots. 318, 406d; KB27/737, rot. 89; 739, rots. 38, 49d, 82; 742, rot. 117; 743, rot. 16d; 744, rot. 3; 752, rot. 39d; 765, rot. 80d.

The dispute with Tregoose did not represent the only occasion on which Cartheu fell victim to one of his more influential neighbours. In the autumn of 1450 he was seized at Trevarrak in the vicinity of St. Austell by the powerful Henry Bodrugan†, who (so Cartheu claimed) imprisoned him in his house at Bodrugan for more than two weeks and deprived him of four bows, 200 arrows, two salets and two jacks.3 KB27/758, rots. 50, 50d. The motivation of this attack is uncertain, but there may have been some prior connexion between the two men, since in October 1447 Cartheu had been among the jurors empanelled to provide further evidence beyond the findings of the original inquisition post mortem of Bodrugan’s father, Sir William*, taken five years earlier.4 CIPM, xxvi. 317.

Certainly, Cartheu and his kin had connexions among the gentry of the region. The MP’s ties with Robert Borlase and his circle aside, the family also maintained links in the borough of Grampound, most notably with the lawyer Thomas Sage I*, whom Peter served as an attorney to convey seisin of a property in the town in October 1451.5 Cornw. RO, Coode and French (Sawle) mss, CF2/215/62/2.

The reasons underlying his election to Parliament by the burgesses of Liskeard are likewise unclear, but it is possible that he had formed connexions within the borough which made him seem a suitable candidate. Alternatively, an explanation may be found in the Cartheus’ aristocratic connexions. The church of Bliston formed part of the Cornish liberty of Richard Beauchamp and his successors as earls of Warwick, while the hamlet of Carthew was part of the property of the Lords Botreaux, who exercised some influence in Liskeard.6 KB27/729, rex rot. 1; CCR, 1422-9, p. 354.