TREOURAN, John

Treouran, who came from a family which held estates in the west of Cornwall, appears to have been normally resident at Truro. The extent of his property, which included the manors of Gwarnick (in St. Allen) and Namboll (in St. Keverne), as well as scattered holdings in the parishes of Paul and Ludgvan, is otherwise obscure, but in 1451 his annual income was said to amount to £5.5 C1/79/31; E179/87/92. Treouran acquired additional holdings through his marriage to a kinswoman and heiress of his Truro neighbour John Polruddon, but relations with his wife’s family broke down, when Polruddon’s widowed daughter-in-law and her second husband Robert Achym sued him for properties of which she had enfeoffed him.6 C1/54/106; 58/201; CP40/810, rot. 172d.

Nothing is known of the background to Treouran’s return to Parliament for the county town of Lostwithiel in 1437, although there may be some significance in the presence among the electors in the county court of his putative kinsman Roger Treouran I*, who was to rise to prominence as a county coroner not long after.7 C219/15/1. Unlike Roger, John is not known to have held office under the Crown, although he did occasionally serve on local juries.8 C1/17/407C; KB27/748, rot. 33. It seems that the two Treourans maintained a connexion in spite of their different career paths: when Roger was first returned to Parliament in February 1449, it was as a Member for the westerly borough of Truro, where John was of some consequence, and it is possible that he was repaying his kinsman’s earlier favour by exerting his local influence on Roger’s behalf.

.Like many other south-westerners John Treouran had shipping interests. He owned a share in Le Marie of Truro, a vessel of 40 tons, which he and his partner Thomas Poldu were licensed to take to Santiago in August 1462,9 C76/146, m. 13. and at another time in his career he also took over a vessel called the Davy of Fowey (although the terms of its acquisition remain obscure, and its previous owners, William Brewer and William Dawe, while admitting that they had freely and permanently entrusted the ship to Treouran, complained to the chancellor about his refusal to return it to them).10 C1/36/109.

By the early 1460s Treouran, who in September 1449 was said to be over 50 years old, was clearly a respected member of the community of Truro, and within a few years his standing led to his election as mayor of the town. It was in this capacity that he presided over the parliamentary elections in the borough in May 1467 and attested the borough’s indenture with the sheriff, Sir John Colshull*.11 C139/140/42; C219/17/1/22. Little else is known of Treouran, who appears to have survived into the 1480s, when he was still engaged in litigation in Chancery over the Polruddon estates. The dispute over this property was not settled in his lifetime and would in turn occupy both his son, Henry, and his grandson, Thomas.12 C1/54/106; 58/201; 79/30-34; 85/22-26; 450/1-3. There is no evidence to link Treouran with a London vintner of similar name, who was closely connected with Humphrey, duke of Gloucester in the 1440s: CPR, 1436-41, p. 508; 1452-61, p. 123; 1461-7, p. 456; CCR, 1435-41, p. 423; 1454-61, p. 433; 1461-8, p. 347.