RESCRUK, Thomas

The Rescruks took their name from the family seat in the far west of Cornwall.4 The family must be distinguished from their near-namesakes, the Rescarreks of Roscarrok and Bodannan in St. Endellion in the north of the county. The MP’s contemporary, Thomas Rescarrek, who was one of the heirs of John Chenduyt, married Isabel, da. and ultimate coh. of Stephen Bodulgate, as well as of her brother Thomas Bodulgate*, and lived on until the mid 1460s. His descendants eventually sat in Parl. in Mary’s reign: C139/31/57; CFR, xv. 230-2; E159/207, brevia Mich. rot. 21; Cornw. RO, Coryton mss, DD.CY1054, 1056; Reg. Lacy (Canterbury and York Soc. lx), i. 224; SC6/816/6; 821/11; 822/1; C142/59/30; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 540; 1509-58, iii. 217-19. The extent of their estates is obscure, nor is it certain when exactly Thomas succeeded to them, but he was clearly in their possession by the summer of 1430 when he granted a rent in ‘Penhalwyn’ to his kinsman and namesake, the son of James Rescruk.5 CAD, iv. A8710, A10025, A12012. ‘Penhalwyn’ was prob. Polawyn in Mawgan in Meneage or Polwyn in Cury, rather than Pollawyn in Colan. It is indeed likely that he already held the family lands in 1429 when he was returned to Parliament by the borough of Helston, for although it is not certain whether he held any property within the borough itself, the Rescruk estates in the surrounding hundred of Kirrier may have been deemed sufficient qualification to fulfil the statutory requirement for residency, if only in the widest possible sense. Similarly, property in the parishes of Kea and Kenwyn near Truro may have played its part in Rescruk’s return for that borough two years later. On this second occasion he may have attracted some government attention, for – unusually for a sitting MP – he was appointed one of the collectors of the tax granted by the Parliament, not just in his own county but in his own constituency. There were sound reasons to avoid such an appointment, and predictably the collectors did not raise a penny from the men of Truro, returning instead that the borough was too badly decayed to pay the £16 2s. 5¼d. which it customarily found. This the officials of the Exchequer found hard to believe, but so slow was Exchequer process that it was not until June 1437 that the Cornish assize justices were ordered to launch an inquiry into the matter.6 Truro bor. recs. B/TRU/16.

Despite these questions over the way Rescruk conducted his official duties, he was entrusted with the collection of another tax in 1434 and throughout the 1430s was periodically included in ad hoc commissions, many of them concerned with the acts of piracy common in the far south-west. At other times he served on local juries – he headed one of those empanelled in 1428 to take the inquisition post mortem of John Chenduyt† and two years later served at the inquest into the murder of the necromancer John Neuport (the would-be murderer of William, Lord Botreaux) – and he attended the shire court, where he was present to attest the parliamentary elections of 1437.7 C139/31/57, m. 7; KB9/226/93. Rescruk’s increased public activity was at least in part a consequence of his landed wealth, which was greatly enhanced by his marriage in the early 1430s to a wealthy widow and heiress. The estates held jointly by the couple in Carlidnack in Mawnan, Trewillis and Cowijack in St. Keverne, Boddervannick in Wendron, Goodagrane in Mabe, Killywerris in Kea, Tremenheere,8 There are four places of this name in western Cornwall, situated respectively in the parishes of St. Keverne, Ludgvan, Stithians and Wendron. Carvedras in Constantine and the borough of Helston extended across the entire area between that town and the port of Truro further inland and encompassed nearly 1,000 acres of arable, meadow, wood and pasture.9 Cornw. Feet of Fines, ii (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1950), 1003.

In general, Rescruk appears to have enjoyed cordial relations with his neighbours. He witnessed deeds for the Reskymers of Reskymer and in 1439 stood surety for Michael Power in the acquisition of property at Penryn.10 CAD, iv. A10021; CFR, xvii. 72. At some point he also appears to have formed a connexion with Sir William Bonville*, perhaps following the latter’s appointment as steward of the duchy of Cornwall in 1437, since after Rescruk’s death Bonville referred to him as his ‘servant’.11 KB27/748, rot. 69. Evidence of quarrels is more limited: bonds for £12 made to Thomas Giffard* by Rescruk and Richard Cheket of Callington in February 1438 may relate to a dispute of some kind,12 CCR, 1435-41, p. 169. and later in the same year Rescruk travelled to Westminster to pursue in person a suit against a Wareham merchant, John Frank, by whom he claimed to have been imprisoned and forced to seal bonds for his release.13 KB27/708, rot. 15; CPR, 1436-41, p. 334; CP40/711, rot. 305. Nevertheless, his official duties certainly made him unpopular with those whose unlawful activities he investigated, and in view of his prominence in combating Cornish piracy it is not surprising that he was eventually to fall victim to a notorious local pirate, Thomas Beville† of Nambol in St. Keverne. It was later said that on the morning of 19 Apr. 1442 he had been peacefully engaged about his business at Park-an-Tidno in the tithing of Trenoweth in St. Keverne, when about 11 o’ clock he was ambushed by Beville and three associates, David Goldsmith of Bridgwater, John Porthbyan of Tresellek, and John Treflyan alias Rous of Reskymer, who, armed with cudgels, beat him to death.14 KB27/742, rot. 133d.

Rescruk’s widow, Annora, appealed Beville and his associates of the murder, but it was some time before they were brought to justice. By the summer of 1443 they had been arrested and imprisoned at Launceston, but when it was finally possible to bring a local jury into court at Easter 1445, the panel had to be quashed at Annora’s request, as it had been empanelled by the under sheriff, Richard Penpons*, at the naming of her opponents.15 KB27/735, rot. 18d; 736, rot. 26d. She finally gained a hearing in King’s bench in the autumn of 1446, and Beville, Goldsmyth and Porthbyan were placed in the Marshalsea, but it was not until March 1448 that new jurors could be produced at the Cornish assizes, only to be rejected as biased by the defendants.16 KB27/742, rot. 133d; 743, rot. 18; 745, rot. 27; 746, rots. 91d, 129; 748, rot. 71; 749, rot. 83d. Realizing the limited chances of succeeding on her own, Annora now persuaded her husband’s old patron, Bonville, to sue her opponents for the assault on Rescruk. Bonville did so in April 1448, but his support came at a considerable price: in November 1450 Annora had to sign most of her property over to him and the lawyer William Bere*, reserving to herself merely an annuity of ten marks for the term of her life.17 KB27/748, rot. 69; 749, rot. 30d; Cornw. Feet of Fines, ii. 1088. By contrast, the Rescruk lands at ‘Penhalwyn’ passed to her former husband’s kinsman and namesake, the son of James Rescruk, who had them in his possession by September 1444.18 CAD, iv. A12012.