POLRUDDON, John (c.1389-1449/50), of St. Columb Major and Polruddon in St. Austell, Cornw.

Born in the second half of the 1380s, Polruddon was probably the son of a lawyer from central Cornwall, who represented Lostwithiel and Truro in the Parliaments of February 1388 and 1399 respectively, and had served as a royal commissioner, clerk of the peace and under sheriff in the county. Like his putative father, John trained in the law and it was probably his profession that recommended him to the burgesses of Truro and Bodmin for his two elections to Parliament. By the time of his second election he was sufficiently well established as a lawyer to be formally styled an apprentice-at-law in the return, and it was he who delivered the sheriff’s election indenture to Westminster. C219/13/5. From the middle years of Henry IV’s reign John was practicing as an attorney at the Cornish assizes, in the royal courts at Westminster and at the Exchequer – at first alongside Pascoe, but later independently, and it is indicative of his growing reputation that his clients soon included men of regional standing, like Alexander Champernowne, Sir John Dynham and Sir William Bonville*, JUST1/1540, rots. 114d, 115; E159/205, recorda Hil. rot. 6d; KB27/649, rot. 36; CP40/608, att. rots. 2d, 4; 658, rots. 324, 413; 660, rot. 107d, 132. as well as the more important gentry of his native Cornwall, such as the great Arundells of Lanherne and the Petits of Predannek, for whom he regularly attested property transactions. The Polruddons themselves also relied on their kin to take care of their interests at law, and thus in the summer of 1428 John’s presumed father saw fit to let him represent his interests at the Launceston assizes, perhaps on account of his own failing health. JUST1/1540, rot. 115d; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 107; CP40/639, rot. 128; 660, rot. 122; 664, rot. 23; 666, rot. 4; 703, rot. 133d; Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR1/264, 296. By then John had formed an attachment to the Cornish shire-house. He served successive sheriffs of Cornwall as their receiver of writs in the court of common pleas, and in the autumn of 1430 was appointed under sheriff of Cornwall by the sheriff, Robert Chamberlain. CP40/658, rot. 139; 665, rots. 132d, 315; 679, rot. 521d.

The extent of the estates to which John succeeded at Pascoe Polruddon’s death is uncertain. Even in Pascoe’s lifetime he appears to have owned property in Innis Moor in St. Austell, and he may have subsequently held the older man’s lands spread out in the parishes of Veryan and St. Dennis. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 106; Cornw. Feet of Fines, ii (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1950), 977; CP40/699, rots. 330, 333; KB27/679, rot. 9d; CCR, 1422-9, pp. 463, 465. Like many of his neighbours, Polruddon appears to have had interests in the Cornish tin industry, for in 1426 he was suing a Lanivet tin-blower for debt, in 1429 he acted as attorney for William Alcok, the sub-bailiff of the stannary at Blackmore, and in 1436 he himself was being pursued for debts in the stannary’s court. CPR, 1422-9, p. 308; CP40/673, rot. 459; SC2/157/6, rot. 11. Indeed, it may have been on account of his interests in the mining industry that he fell victim to the brutal Richard Tregoose*, who on 10 Aug. 1428 set upon him with a band of armed retainers and cut off three fingers of his right hand (even though the assailant would later claim that Polruddon had been first to draw his sword). Their disagreement was not of long standing, for as recently as the spring of 1427 Tregoose had employed Polruddon as his attorney in the court of common pleas. Following the assault, Polruddon used his connexions at Westminster to good effect and secured the appointment of a high-powered commission of oyer and terminer headed by the later chief justice Sir John Juyn and Sir Thomas Arundell* of Tolverne, one of the most influential men in Cornwall (whom Polruddon served as attorney at the Exchequer when he held the shrievalty not long after), and although Tregoose was never formally punished for his attack, by early 1430 the two men appear to have reached an understanding. CP40/664, rot. 405; E207/14/8; 17/2; 173/3; KB27/729, rex rot. 1; CPR, 1422-9, p. 550; H. Kleineke, ‘Why the West was Wild’, The Fifteenth Cent. III ed. Clark, 84-85. Nor was this the only occasion on which Polruddon fell victim to the lawlessness of his neighbours. In March 1435 he was seized at Bodmin by a group of local merchants and artisans who kept him imprisoned for ten days, for reasons now obscure. KB27/696, rot. 32d; 697, rot. 47.

Polruddon continued his professional practice into at least the mid 1430s, and even dared to provide sureties for the good behaviour of Thomas Bere* towards his old adversary Tregoose. KB27/677, rex rot. 3; 679, rots. 9d, 22; 694, rot. 52d; 696, rex rots. 17d, 23d; 697, rot. 10. He also continued to defend his interests in the royal courts, suing various individuals for debts or the occasional trespass on his property. KB27/679, rot. 9d; 680, rot. 34; 681, rot. 65d. By the end of his life Polruddon was married to Florence, a daughter of a former client of his father’s, but this may have been his second marriage, for the union appears to have remained childless, and at least some of the Polruddon family property seems to have passed to another John Polruddon, a son of an earlier marriage. CP40/748, rot. 89d. This yr. John left a wid. called Margaret, who later married one Robert Achym: C1/54/106; 58/201. Polrudden himself did not attest any election returns after 1435, although in 1447 he found sureties for John Nanskelly II* of Bodmalgan, one of the Members for Truro in the Bury Parliament. C219/15/4. He is last recorded as a witness at John Trenewith’s proof of age in September 1449, when he himself was said to be over 60 years old. C139/140/42. He died not long after, for in December 1450 his widow made a release of lands in Philleigh and Gluvias to her cousin and heir, Robert Wolneden. Carew-Pole mss, HD/11/182; C219/15/1. By the early 1460s the Polruddon lands had passed to a kinswoman, Katherine, perhaps a daughter of the younger John, and then the wife of the Truro shipowner John Treouran*. CP40/810, rots. 172d, 292d.