HERLE, Thomas, of Exeter, Devon and Tywardreath, Cornw.

Thomas Herle was a bastard son of one of the leading members of the Cornish gentry. The MP should not be confused with several members of the Prideaux branch of the Herle family of like name: J.S. Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 219. The background to his return in 1425 for the borough of Liskeard is obscure, but there can be little doubt that he owed it to the influence of his father, who that year was himself elected one of the knights of the shire. In subsequent years Herle was on several occasions present in the shire court for the Cornish parliamentary elections, and unless he took a degree of interest in parliamentary affairs himself, he may have been acting as his father’s eyes and ears. Certainly, the blemish of his birth may have played a part in excluding him from office under the Crown or duchy of Cornwall, although he was occasionally empanelled on local juries, including among others one to inquire into David Urban*’s assault on Walter Pennans in 1429. E143/22/5, m. 2. In parallel he maintained cordial relations among the more influential men of the far south-west, including Sir William Bodrugan* and the chapter of Tywardreath priory, not far from his paternal home. Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME1540; Arundell (Tywardreath) mss, ART3/113.

As a consequence of his illegitimate birth, Herle did not stand to inherit any of his father’s lands, and despite having no legitimate offspring, Sir John is not known to have made any settlement on him, unless it consisted of the two messuages and an acre of land in Tywardreath that Herle was seeking to recover in the courts between 1437 and 1439. CP40/707, rot. 582; 713, rot. 334. No conclusive evidence of any other source of income has been discovered, but it seems possible that Thomas, like many of his neighbours, had interests in the tin trade, for in 1431 he was pursuing an action of trespass (later found to be vexatious) against one John Esot in the stannary court of Blackmore. SC2/157/5, rots. 3, 10.

Perhaps the connexions that Herle thus forged among the mercantile community of the south-west were instrumental in allowing him to contract a marriage to the eventual heiress of a wealthy Exeter merchant, a match which seems to have taken place only after Sir John Herle’s death. In his lifetime, Sir John had nevertheless been a familiar figure in the city of Exeter: Devon RO, Exeter city recs., receivers’ accts. 2-3 Hen. VI, m. 2; 3-4 Hen. VI, m. 2; 7-8 Hen. VI, m. 1d; 12-13 Hen. VI, m. 3. Following his marriage, he may have settled in Exeter, where property said to be worth £2 13s. 4d. p.a. was settled on him and his wife in 1446. He evidently did not live to see his wife enter any other part of her inheritance, for within seven years of this settlement he had died without issue. His wife, Joan, survived him and went on to marry David John*, a servant of the duke of Exeter. She was to experience considerable difficulty in securing her inheritance, for John Germyn’s executor, the Exeter innkeeper John Bonefant alias Pyggyston, staked a personal claim to part of Germyn’s property and began a lengthy legal battle to assert his right. In August 1479 Bonefant took the law into his own hands and seized a range of plate, silver spoons and money from the houses of David John and Joyce, John Germyn’s widow. KB27/876, rex rot. 4d; C1/34/118; 62/11-14; 183/26. Following David John’s death, Joan married a third time, and died in May 1499, having outlived all three of her husbands. C1/143/66. At her death, the Exeter properties settled upon her and her first husband passed to the Burys of Colaton under the terms of the settlement of 1446. CFR, xxii. no. 623; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 267, 555.