COODE, William (1573-1655), of Morval, Cornw.

The Coodes claimed an ancient ancestry, which they traced on the distaff side to the earls of Devon and the Norman le Prouz and de Meoles families in or before the thirteenth century. The earliest known man of their own surname was Richard Coode†, who sat as MP for Liskeard in 1354. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Coodes were a fairly prominent family in eastern Cornwall, marrying Edgcumbes and Corytons, and acquiring the estate at Morval through a match with the daughter and heir of John Glynn de Morval during the reign of Henry VIII.6Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 94-5; Carew, Survey, 132v. William Coode, who was born in 1573 and at the age of 16 inherited the family estates on the death of his father, continued the family tradition of marrying locally and well. In the 1590s he married the daughter of another Cornish landowner, Walter Kendall of Pelynt, and following her death in 1613 he remarried, this time into the Stucleys of Devon. In the next few years he arranged marriages for his own children with the Vivians of Trelowarren, the Kekewichs of Ketchfrench and twice more with the Stucleys.7Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 95. Coode’s horizons appear to have been very limited, and, despite his relative wealth and good connections, he played no part in national affairs. His appointment as sheriff of Cornwall in 1616 was the only occasion when he accepted public employment, and he was named to none of the local ad hoc commissions, although he presumably sat as a justice of the peace.8List of Sheriffs, 23. He did, however, have a stake in some of the Cornish boroughs, notably Helston and Liskeard, where he was, respectively, tenant by inheritance and freeholder of some of the duchy of Cornwall lands; and he may also have acquired some influence in East Looe from his mother’s family, the Mayowes.9Parl. Surv. Duchy Cornw. i. 45, 80; Vivian, Vis. Cornw., 95.

Coode’s election for East Looe in the Short Parliament elections in mid-April 1640 was on the interest of Francis Buller I*, who recommended him to the corporation.10Cornw. RO, DC/LOO/79; Antony House, Carew-Pole BO/23/73/10. There is no record that Coode attended Parliament, however, or that he was in any way active in politics – whether locally or nationally – thereafter. Coode drew up his will in March 1642, when he was 68 and ‘looking toward my latter end’, although he stated that he was still in good health. He had already settled his estate on his eldest son, John Coode, and now left bequests of £300 each to three daughters, and a further £100 to his younger son, Charles.11PROB11/253/316. In fact, Coode lived for another 13 years after making his will. In August 1648 he redistributed the cash legacies on the death of one of his daughters, and in the mid-1650s he may have been involved in negotiating a match between his granddaughter, Anne, and John Buller* of Shillingham (the son of his parliamentary patron in 1640, Francis Buller I) although the marriage itself took place after Coode’s death.12PROB11/253/316; Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 95. The Bullers were certainly still on good terms with the Coodes at this time, and on 1 May 1655 Francis Buller II*’s correspondent in Cornwall made a point of was sending him news of the death of ‘old Mr Coode’.13Cornw. RO, BU/118. William Coode had been buried at Morval 11 days before, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John, whose three daughters were the last of the main branch of the Coode family.14Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 95.