TRESITHNEY, Richard

Richard was a scion of a lesser Cornish gentry family closely connected with the powerful Arundells of Lanherne.2 Arundell mss, AR1/127. His parentage is obscure, but it is possible that he was a son or other kinsman of his more prominent kinsman, John Tresithney.3 This is suggested by J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, iii. 384, but the ped. provided there is problematic in other respects. Certainly, the relationship between the two men was a close one, for John was present in the shire court at Lostwithiel on the occasion of both of Richard’s returns for Bodmin, attesting the indentures recording the names of the men elected for Cornwall and its boroughs. By the time of his first election Richard was probably already married to the daughter of a minor Cornish gentleman, who brought him the manors of Tregennow Wortha and Tregorrak, and he may have remained at Westminster after the dissolution to oversee the enrolment of a fine settling the remainder of the Tregennowe property in the parish of St. Austell on his wife and her descendants.4 Cornw. Feet of Fines, ii. 957; Arundell mss, AR1/851.

Tresithney is not known to have distinguished himself in the Commons and never held office under the Crown or in the service of the duchy of Cornwall, although he did on occasion serve on local juries.5 CP40/718, rot. 319d. He may nevertheless have taken some degree of interest in parliamentary affairs, for his presence at the Cornish shire elections is recorded on no fewer than four occasions, the first of them coinciding with his own final return for Bodmin.

Perhaps through his putative father, by the mid 1430s Tresithney had been drawn into the lengthy and violent dispute between Robert Borlase and the brutal Richard Tregoose*. In early 1444 Tregoose claimed before the justices of common pleas that in September 1433 Tresithney had conspired with Borlase, Sir John Arundell II*, John Tresithney and others to have him indicted of cattle theft before the justices of oyer and terminer, and had succeeded in having him arrested and placed in the marshalsea of the King’s bench. In parallel, so Tregoose alleged, the two Tresithneys had fabricated additional charges against him, accusing him of the rape and abduction of the young daughter of one of the earl of Warwick’s villeins. At the Launceston assizes in August 1445 a jury found in favour of Tregoose, and awarded the vast sum of £1,000 in damages against Tresithney and his associates.6 CP40/732, rot. 117; 733, rot. 303d; 734, rot. 311d, 315. Tregoose’s attorney had asked for the even greater sum of £3,000 in damages.

It is not known whether Tresithney was ever forced to pay a share of these damages, and he may have died not long after. The date of his death is not recorded, but he seems to have predeceased his wife, Joan, who was also dead by October 1446, when her heir was fined for failing to pay suit to the manor court of Trenant.7 Cornw. RO, Arundell (Tywardreath) mss, ART2/5, rot. 4. The couple left three daughters: Joan, who married Walter Colbroke, Amy, who married Nicholas Lower, and Maud, who married William Devyok.8 Arundell mss, AR1/440, 851.