TRETHERF, John

More may be added to the earlier biography.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 656.

Like many other landowners, Tretherf was frequently occupied by the defence of his lands in the law courts or otherwise. At the spring assizes of 1423 held at Launceston his tenure of a parcel of land in ‘Baydek’ was challenged by the powerful Thomas Carminowe*, but the suit was delayed by legal technicalities.4 JUST1/1536, rot. 27. A protracted dispute with the lawyer Richard Penpons*, arising from a quarrel over property rights in Sithney which had been simmering since the days of Penpons’ parents, was initially submitted to Sir William Bodrugan* for his decision and then after Bodrugan had failed to bring about a settlement to a fresh attempt at mediation by the lawyers William Trethake* and Robert Treage* in 1427, and finally to the arbitration of Hervy Karaan and Nicholas Aysshton* in March 1435. Even so, the matter still awaited closure in early 1436.5 CP40/677, rot. 138; 684, rot. 121; 687, rot. 329; 691, rot. 331; 700, rot. 105; 703, rot. 574; 706, rot. 461.

Tretherf had good reason to side with Sir Thomas Pomeroy† in his land dispute with his kinsman Edward Pomeroy†, for his eldest son and heir, Reynold Tretherf, had married one of the grand-daughters of Sir Thomas’s first wife by a previous marriage to Sir John St. Aubyn, and consequently stood to gain a share of the substantial Pomeroy lands after Sir Thomas’s death.6 KB27/670, rex rot. 19; CP40/680, rot. 139; 682, rot. 425. In addition, Tretherf’s protracted disagreements with Edward Pomeroy’s son-in-law, his own wife’s nephew, John Trenewith of Fentongollan, may also have contributed to his hostility to Edward. In early 1441 Trenewith appeared in the court of King’s bench to accuse Tretherf and his son Reynold of having three years previously invaded his manor of Alveston, allowing his livestock to consume the plaintiff’s grass, and causing £100-worth of damage. Tretherf by contrast claimed to have been granted half the manor, as well as £20 of annual rents from his Cornish lands, by Trenewith’s father in May 1415, not long after his marriage to the latter’s daughter and by way of a marriage portion.7 CP40/720, rots. 303, 307d; C1/39/133; C254/143/35. This dispute did not, however, prevent Tretherf from frequently attesting deeds alongside his wife’s nephew, particularly at the request of his close friend Sir William Bodrugan, her first cousin.8 Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME74-77, 421, 1221.