DOCAT, Robert.

The junior Member chosen at Helston to attend the second Parliament of Edward VI’s reign was probably a stranger to the borough, since no Robert Docat has been traced in Cornwall during the 16th century. He may be identifiable with a London grocer who leased a messuage called le Lantron and several shops in the parish of St. Magnus. Little has been discovered about this Robert Docat whose active career spanned the years between 1541, when money owing to him by the dissolved abbey at Leicester was repaid by the court of augmentations, and 1556, when he received a ring under his nephew’s will. Docat may have owed his seat to one of the knights for Cornwall on this occasion, (Sir) William Godolphin, who had business links with the capital, or possibly to his own fellow-Member, an auditor both in augmentations and the duchy of Cornwall, Thomas Mildmay.1LP Hen. VIII, xviii; CPR, 1548-9, p. 297; PCC 48 Wrastley.