COLYS, John

Although little is known about Colys’s personal circumstances, in his day he appears to have been a man of some standing in his native town of Liskeard, where he traded as a cutler. Many of his activities are difficult to distinguish from those of a younger namesake, probably his son, who seems to have been of age by the early months of 1418, when the two men were joint parties to a dispute with Reynold Toker* (Colys’s parliamentary colleague in 1426) over an unspecified trespass.3 CP40/628, att. rot. 6d. It is clear that it was the older man who represented the borough in 1426, as he was styled ‘senior’ in the return, and it was most likely he who later that year took office as one of the reeves of Liskeard, having previously served in that office in 1408-9. On this second occasion there appear to have been questions over his conduct of the office, for by March 1428 he still had not appeared before the duchy of Cornwall’s auditors at Lostwithiel to present his account.4 SC6/820/13, rot. 4.

The full extent of the property of the Colys family is uncertain, but the MP is known to have owned a croft in the ‘seigneury’ of Liskeard, which they held by grant of John Jaybien†. In March 1429 this property became the subject of a dispute with the powerful Sir Ralph Botreaux* who claimed to have been disseised by the two Johns. The matter was brought to trial at the Cornish assizes, but a jury which appeared before the justices was quashed on the grounds that the sheriff, Sir William Talbot†, was married to Sir Ralph’s kinswoman Eleanor Peverell.5 CCR, 1419-22, p. 127; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 490; JUST1/1540, rot. 92d.

Not long after Colys’s spell in the Commons, he and his colleague Toker were charged by a Somerset jury with the serious offence of clipping some 30 oz. of gold nobles and passing the metal thus gained on to professional counterfeiters. In August 1430 the two men were cleared of this charge at the Somerset assizes,6 KB27/677, rex rot. 3. but ten years later similar accusations resurfaced. At a view of frankpledge held on 2 May 1441 by John Cork*, the prior of Bodmin’s steward, the jury claimed that in February 1434 Colys had counterfeited 300 écus, 300 groats and 200 half pence of base metals, covered them in thin coats of gold and silver, had in subsequent weeks used them to purchase tin, iron and other merchandise, and finally had induced a number of his neighbours to bring the remaining coins into circulation for him. In June Colys, then apparently serving as mayor of Liskeard, surrendered to the Marshalsea and was released on bail until his case could be heard. At the Cornish assizes of that August he was, once again, acquitted.7 KB9/236/49-50; KB27/721, rex rot. 16.

In spite of these accusations, Colys continued to play a leading part in Liskeard life. He was regularly among the burgesses attesting his neighbours’ property deeds at the guildhall,8 E210/759; Cornw. RO, Liskeard bor. recs., B/Lis/20/2/45, 49, 53, 54; B/Lis/78; Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/63. and at least twice set his seal to the parliamentary election indenture in the shire court. On other occasions, he found sureties for the attendance of Liskeard’s representatives in the Commons: in 1429 he acted in this capacity for John Tresithney* and William Trethewy*, and in 1447 he provided some much-needed legitimacy for the Suffolk esquire Robert Chalers* who was returned as Liskeard’s representative in the Bury Parliament of that year.9 C219/14/1, 15/4.

In late 1439 Colys was drawn into a serious political crisis in Liskeard. That autumn a certain John Clement had been elected mayor, a choice with which some of the leading burgesses were not content. Colys, Richard Knoll, Robert Mey and John atte Wille with a following of other men made their way to the guildhall, forced their way in, and conducted a fresh election, choosing Richard Vage as mayor, and leaving the partisans of the ousted John Clement to seek redress in Chancery.10 C1/12/237; CPR, 1436-41, p. 371. It is unclear which side carried the day in this dispute, but an accommodation may have been reached between the parties, for in the following year it was evidently Colys who held the mayoralty, while John Clement resumed office a year later.11 SC6/815/13; 821/6, rot. 3d.

On chronological grounds, it is probable that Colys, who is first recorded holding local office in the reign of Henry IV, did not live for long after 1450. It seems unlikely that he was one of the two men of this name who attested the Cornish elections of 1467, although it is just possible that it was he who in November 1447 was fined 1d. for causing a public nuisance by depositing dung in the royal road in Liskeard.12 B/Lis/91, m. 2.