NANSKELLY, John II

Although recorded on the schedule accompanying the sheriff’s election indenture as John Kelly, it is likely that the man who represented Truro in 1447 was in fact the son of John Nanskelly, one of the men elected knight of the shire.3 The suggestion of HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 509-10 that the MP for Truro was an Exeter merchant and shipowner appears to have little substance. The younger John is first mentioned in April 1422, when his father settled the family estates in Nanskelly, Penhale, Dodwood, Tregony, Bodmin, Grampound, Newhamstreet near Truro and elsewhere in Cornwall on feoffees headed by Edward Burnebury* for term of his life, the remainder after his death belonging to his elder son, the subject of this biography, and subsequently to his younger children.4 CAD, iv. A9992.

It is not clear what motivated the Nanskellys, father and son, to seek election to the Bury Parliament of 1447, but the decision may have been a deliberate one, and it is worthy of remark that young Nanskelly’s fellow Member for Truro was a kinsman, William Jane*, and another relative, Stephen Jane*, was returned at Launceston. Nanskelly could certainly claim to meet the statutory requirement for residence in the borough that he represented, in so far as the Nanskellys owned property in and around Truro, although the leasing of one of these properties in Newham Strete near Truro by John’s father to a neighbour for a term of 200 years from October 1442 may suggest that no member of the family actually lived there.5 CAD, iii. A6085.

Nanskelly seems to have commanded some respect among his neighbours, for he was entrusted with the safe-keeping of deeds and muniments on more than one occasion. It seems rather more questionable whether he was deserving of such trust, for several individuals would later take recourse to litigation in Chancery to recover their documents.6 C1/58/90, 101, 296. Perhaps as a result of one such lawsuit, in December 1461 commissioners were appointed to arrest a group of Cornishmen, including John and Richard Nanskelly, and bring them into Chancery.7 CPR, 1461-7, p. 101. It is possible that the MP was the man who married Isabel Lannargh, grand-daughter of John Trewoofe† and heiress of her father James Lannargh. The lands which Isabel brought to her husband included more than 300 acres in Helston as well as other property in Harlyn Rescoll and Tregonaun.8 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 661; C1/54/346; 58/101.