A branch of the Arundell family had been settled at Trerice since the mid fourteenth century. Their descent from the main line at Lanherne is a matter of some debate: in the early sixteenth century Leland noted the difference between the two families’ arms and was told that the Arundells of Trerice believed themselves to be descended from the Arundales of Lower Normandy, who had at an unspecified point held the castle of Culy.
Like many other gentry families, the Arundells of Trerice owed their fortunes to the vagaries of the marriage market. On the death of Sir John’s grandfather, Ralph, the wardship of his son and heir, Nicholas, had been granted to the landowner John Pellour, who had lost little time in marrying the young man to his own daughter and ultimate heiress.
Yet, the acquisition of the Durant estates did not go smoothly, and for many years embroiled Arundell in acrimonious litigation with a series of rival claimants who asserted titles often dating back to obscure settlements of the mid fourteenth century. Among these claimants were Baldwin Fulford* who for nearly a decade from 1427 to 1436 sought to secure lands in Marhamchurch and other property rights in the county,
In accordance with his family’s standing, the young John Arundell went to France in 1415 in the retinue of Sir Edward Courtenay, eldest son of the earl of Devon, and may have fought at Agincourt with Sir Edward later that year.
Arundell’s income placed him firmly in the ranks of those expected to contribute to the government of their shire, and on his return from France he was pricked sheriff of Cornwall, an office in which he was to continue for the next 18 months. Within days of his appointment it fell to Arundell to conduct the Cornish elections to the Parliament of 1420, not an unfamiliar task to him, for he had previously been present at the elections of 1417 and 1419 and sealed the indentures with the sheriff. He was to preside at two more elections during the course of his shrievalty, and for years afterwards he continued to take an interest in the choice of Cornwall’s parliamentary representatives, attesting the sheriffs’ indentures on no fewer than five occasions between 1423 and 1435. Although there is no definite evidence that Arundell was anything other than impartial when presiding at elections, it may be no coincidence that both elections of 1421 saw the return of one or other of his kinsmen of the Lanherne line (John* and Sir John I), and in May 1421 the borough of Lostwithiel, where the elections were held, returned John Colyn†, who had served in his retinue in France in the previous year.
At the same time, however, relations between the two branches of the Arundells were strained. That same summer saw a serious quarrel between Sir John II and his more influential cousin, Sir John I of Lanherne, come to a head. The details and cause of the dispute are now obscure, but it may have been connected with Sir John I’s acquisition in 1415 of the lands held in dower by Joan, widow of Sir John of Trerice’s grandfather, Ralph Arundell. By 1421 the matter had evidently turned violent, for the lords of the Council ordered Sir John I to be bound in the immense sum of £1,000 to keep the peace towards his kinsman.
In the meantime, Sir John II continued to serve as sheriff of Cornwall, but his performance of his official duties occasionally also caused controversy. Thus, in late 1422 the parties in a suit before the south-western assize justices accused him of packing juries in their opponents’ favour, while one Robert Wood of Bradworthy claimed the huge amount of 1,000 marks in damages for Sir John’s seizure of his household utensils and arrest of one of his servants.
Serious though the defence of the Durant inheritance and the matter of Helston might be, they were far from alone in preoccupying Arundell in the law courts. Quarrelsome even by contemporary Cornish standards, he was frequently in dispute with one or other of his neighbours. About the time of the Crown grant to Treage and Penpons in 1424 he had become involved in litigation with the abbot of Hartland, who sought acquittance of service owed to Sir William Bonville*. It is not known whether this particular suit ever reached a verdict, but Arundell’s dispute with Hartland abbey continued throughout his life, and the legal battle was continued after his death, first by his widow and later by his grandson, John.
Yet, those whom Arundell merely opposed in the courts could consider themselves fortunate, for he was not above employing alternative methods to get his way. Thus, the London ironmonger John Hatherley*, to whom Sir John Arundell I had granted the wardship and marriage of William Penrose, complained that when he had sent his servants to collect the rents from his ward’s estates, they had been set upon by Sir John II and his associates, who had threatened to cut out their tongues should they persist in executing their master’s business.
Like many of his neighbours, Arundell occasionally engaged in acts of piracy. Jointly with his kinsman Renfrew Arundell* he owned a balinger called the Christopher of Truro, and it was this vessel which jointly with two of Renfrew’s other ships in October 1440 attacked the St. Julian of Vannes on its journey to Bordeaux. The Cornishmen took and sold the ship and its cargo, said to be worth some 6,000 crowns, leaving its Breton owners to petition for redress in Chancery. A commission of inquiry was appointed, but neither of the Arundells are known ever to have been brought to justice for their part in the incident.
Another interest which Arundell shared with many of his peers was an involvement in the Cornish tin industry. He is regularly found defending his rights in the stannary courts, where he also pursued his quarrel with Baldwin Fulford.
There is no suggestion that Arundell’s at times unlawful activities in any way impeded his career as a member of his county community. He was frequently appointed to royal commissions, served on the county bench and as a justice of oyer and terminer, and – as far as it is possible to tell from his attendance at elections in the county court – took an interest in parliamentary affairs. Indeed, it is probable that apart from securing his son’s return for Lostwithiel in 1431 he had also been instrumental in the election of his servant William Condorov* for Truro in 1427, when he was himself chosen a knight of the shire.
Arundell’s readiness to come to terms with Richard Maidstone may in part have been motivated by a desire to put his domestic affairs in order before once more setting out to France in 1436, this time in the retinue of the earl of Salisbury.
Arundell probably died in the course of 1450, when the sheriff of Cornwall certified his demise in his return to a writ of distraint. He was certainly dead by early 1451, when his heir’s fealty was required by Katherine, widow of William Stafford*, who was soon to marry his kinsman John Arundell of Lanherne.