Connock’s father is said to have been a prosperous tanner from Wiltshire, who settled in Cornwall as a Duchy receiver. Following the Reformation, he acquired a comfortable estate at Liskeard, and served the town as both mayor and MP. As a younger son, Connock could not expect to live off his inheritance, which amounted to just £100, and therefore forged his own career as a lawyer.
Connock presumably owed his election to Parliament for Bodmin in 1593 to his family’s local standing. His elder brother, John, was deputy feodary of the duchy of Cornwall and an officer in the stannaries, working under (Sir) William Killigrew I* and Sir Walter Ralegh†. Through such connections with central government and the Court, Connock came to the notice of Lord Buckhurst, who selected him in 1595 to serve as his agent in an unsuccessful bid to secure a private patent for the pre-emption of tin.
Following James I’s accession, the duchy of Cornwall was designated as a future appanage for Prince Henry, and on Buckhurst’s instructions Connock helped John Doddridge* to compile a tract detailing the historic possessions of the princes of Wales. Since the mid-sixteenth century the Duchy’s revenues had been subsumed within the Exchequer, but in August 1603 Connock was appointed Duchy auditor with a brief to reverse this situation. He secured the post with the backing of the Duchy’s receiver-general, Sir Francis Godolphin†, after agreeing terms with Sir Walter Cope*, who had also been promised the office.
Once his position as auditor was secure, Connock steadily expanded his influence, obtaining the Duchy solicitorship in February 1604, which enabled him to conduct legal business relating to revenue matters, and involved him in the recovery of Duchy lands alienated during the previous reign. Connock was also made assay-master in April 1605, a post which he apparently helped to create by drawing attention to abuses within the stannaries, though he surrendered the office after just two years. By 1606 he was acting as principal intermediary between Prince Henry and lord treasurer Dorset (the former Lord Buckhurst), who as yet retained ultimate control over the Duchy administration.
During 1607 Connock conducted a survey of the Duchy’s land revenues, with an eye to future improvements. Prince Henry wished to take control of his estates as soon as possible, but the government dragged its heels, using the excuse that he was still a minor. Accordingly, in 1609 Connock prepared for him a tract which not only detailed his rightful possessions, but also demonstrated that previous princes had all received their lands by the age of 14. Aware of the sensitive nature of this information, Connock begged the prince to protect him from the king’s displeasure, but in the event James was persuaded to comply with Henry’s wishes. Connock’s researches helped to determine the manner in which Henry was created prince of Wales in 1610, and also assisted in selecting the additional estates which James I bestowed on the prince.
By now, Connock was relatively wealthy. His service under Elizabeth had been rewarded in December 1604 with an annual pension of £100, while his marriage had brought him the use of a substantial estate in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, which attracted a subsidy assessment of £20 in 1610.
As a leading servant of the heir to the throne, Connock enjoyed a high profile in London, where he leased a house at Charing Cross, conveniently close to Whitehall Palace. By 1611 he belonged to the exclusive dining society which met at the Mitre tavern, whose members included not only colleagues in Prince Henry’s Household, like Inigo Jones* and Sir Robert Phelips*, but also such future luminaries as John Donne* and Sir Lionel Cranfield*.
Despite such confident behaviour, by April 1612 Connock was once more becoming concerned at the scale of his financial commitments, and the underlying fragility of his position was exposed when Prince Henry suddenly died seven months later. His posts of auditor-general and solicitor-general, his principal sources of income, had been granted during pleasure only, and now ceased to exist. Connock’s subsequent reluctance to hand over his official papers indicates his frustration at the turn of events, and he only completed his final task, the winding up of the prince’s estate, in December 1613.
In early 1614 Connock was elected to Parliament for Liskeard, presumably with the full backing of the mayor, one of John Hunkin’s principal allies.
In December 1614 Connock purchased from the Crown several more Cornish properties, including the site of Launceston Priory. He mostly now resided at Calstock, and as steward of the local manor he engaged in a relaxed correspondence with his cousin Hockmore, his successor as Duchy auditor. Connock was employed with Hockmore in July 1616 to review tenancy agreements, but he was increasingly treated like the minor official he now was, and in 1617 suffered the indignity of being presented for encroachment on the Duchy waste at Calstock.
Connock’s will, drawn up on 11 Dec. 1619, sheds considerable light on his lifestyle and aspirations. In addition to his lodgings in London, where he stored his law books, he maintained households at both Lillesdon, his wife’s home, and Calstock, where he apparently occupied the parsonage. Connock owned at least seven paintings, mostly of religious or philosophical subjects such as the Sacrifice of Isaac and ‘cruel Time demonstrated by all ages’, though one was a full-length portrait of Prince Henry. These he seems to have kept at Calstock, along with a viol, an Irish harp, a wind instrument and his best virginals, which were Venetian and ‘covered with crimson velvet being sometime the virginals of the late Queen Eliz[abeth]’. At Lillesdon he stored his other virginals, ‘a choice instrument for sweetness’, a collection of bibles and prayer books, and the bulk of his silverware, including 13 ‘great silver spoons with pictures and images at the end’. His clothing bequests indicate a predilection for glossy black fabrics, though his Calstock wardrobe also included a doublet of straw-coloured cut leather and a perfumed Spanish leather jerkin trimmed with gold and silken lace. Connock’s legatees included his near neighbours Sir Thomas Wise* and Sir Richard Buller*, but being childless he was principally concerned to provide for his eldest brother’s family. Determined that one of his great-nephews, preferably his namesake Richard Connock, should complete a legal training, he provided funding accordingly, on strict conditions. His nephew John, whom he had earlier helped to office as a duchy of Cornwall feodary and customer of Plymouth, was offered Calstock’s household goods and silverware, but only if he built a house there, for which purpose Connock left him £200. The intention of perpetuating his memory was spelt out most clearly in Connock’s minutely detailed instructions for almshouses to be constructed on the Launceston Priory estate, to be called ‘the hospital of Richard Connock esq., servant and officer of the revenues of Prince Henry’. Besides the usual concern that the occupants should be ‘decent, cleanly poor people and impotent’, Connock provided for them to attend the parish church twice daily, and regulated even their bodily functions, with legalistic penalties for designated offences. Management of the hospital was entrusted to three local mayors, and a full accounting procedure was laid down.
Connock died in London, probably early in the New Year, and was buried on 25 Jan. 1620 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His will was unsuccessfully contested by his widow, who, though bequeathed a coach and silverware, found herself obliged to purchase Lillesdon’s household goods from his executors.