HERLE, Sir John

Originally from Northumberland, the Herles had been settled in the south-west only since the days of Sir John’s synonymous father. Whereas the senior branch of the family had intermarried with the Prideaux family and established their seat at Prideaux near Luxulian in Cornwall, the junior line owed much of their landholdings in the county to the acquisition of part of the lands of the Champernownes of Ilfracombe and Tywardreath by the elder Sir John, who before the end of Henry IV’s reign was nevertheless of sufficient standing to represent Cornwall in the Commons. The young John himself made his first appearance in public life four years later, when he first attested the county elections. Before embarking on a career in local administration, he set out to fight in Henry V’s French wars. He was still abroad when in early April 1418 his father suddenly died.5 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 351-2. Herle now succeeded to his extensive patrimony, comprising the Cornish manors of Tywardreath, Trelawney, Pennarth and Week St. Mary and those of Ilfracombe, Colridge, Heath, Clyst St. George, Spittle and ‘Pole’ in Devon, which with other lands in these counties were assessed at over £140 p.a. at his death, although probably worth at least three times as much.6 Ibid. 351; C139/74/26. In the first instance, however, he resumed his military career. In early 1421 he once more journeyed to France in the retinue of Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter, and later that year was pursuing litigation before the parlement of Paris.7 DKR, xliv. 630; English Suits Parlement of Paris (Cam. Soc. ser. 4, xxvi), 281. Before long, Beaufort appointed Herle his vice-admiral in the western district, where local men, like the citizens of Exeter, increasingly sought to curry his favour, not least when he presided over sessions of the court of admiralty.8 Exeter receivers’ accts. 2-4, 12-13 Hen. VI. On land, Herle also began to take his place in local society. He was added to the Cornish bench in the first peace commission issued for that county under Henry VI’s seal, and at the parliamentary elections in 1425 he not only secured his own return as knight of the shire, but also ensured the election of his bastard son Thomas for the borough of Liskeard. He regularly mixed with the leading men in the region, such as the great Sir John Arundell I* of Lanherne, attesting their property deeds and acting as a feoffee of their lands.9 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 35-36; Cornw. RO, Liskeard bor. recs., B/LIS/79; Arundell mss, AR1/264; 21/3; Edgcumbe mss, ME716-18; Whitfords mss, WH1/951.

Not long after Herle’s return from Parliament, the government recognized his prominence in the county by appointing him sheriff of Cornwall in January 1426, in succession to Sir William Talbot†. There appears to have been some delay in his assumption of the office, for although he was appointed in mid January, it was Talbot who sealed the parliamentary indenture for the shire elections held on 11 Feb. as sheriff, whereas Herle merely attested it.10 C219/13/4. Having taken office at last, Sir John seems to have been diligent in carrying out his official duties: in the autumn of 1426 he did not hesitate to take control of the Cornish estates of as important a man as William, Lord Botreaux, to ensure payment of a debt owing to a London scrivener.11 C131/61/12. He nevertheless made good use of the periodic trips to Westminster that his office demanded to see to his private business in the royal law courts.12 KB27/662, rots. 20, 60. Other appointments quickly followed Herle’s shrievalty, and over the course of the next five years he was regularly included in ad hoc commissions in both Cornwall and Devon. The reasons behind his omission from the Cornish bench in 1432 are now obscure, but it is unlikely that he had committed any serious misdemeanour, for in the following year he was pricked for a second term as sheriff and he continued to be included in royal commissions.13 C254/141/16, 20-25.

In the late autumn of 1435 Herle’s health appears to have begun to fail, and he hurriedly settled his estates on feoffees, as well as concluding a sale of his manor of Tywardreath to his heir presumptive, Sir William Bonville*, a distant relative with whom he shared no more than a great-great-grandfather in the early 14th-century landowner Henry Champernowne†.14 CP40/702, rot. 137d; 703, rot. 124. It was probably also at this time that he began to make provision for the establishment of a perpetual chantry at Ilfracombe, which was to provide masses not only for the souls of himself and his parents and ancestors, but more poignantly also for those of Henry V and the duke of Exeter, together with prayers for the welfare of Henry VI, the duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort. In association with Bishop Lacy of Exeter and the lawyer John Coppleston* (that year a knight of the shire for Devon) he petitioned the Commons for a royal licence for the foundation, which was granted.15 SC8/110/5456-7. Yet, the project apparently never came to fruition, for Herle died on Christmas Eve, a day after the dissolution of Parliament. He left no legitimate offspring, and the old Champernowne lands that he had inherited from his mother now passed to the Bonvilles. Herle’s bastard son had married the daughter of a wealthy Exeter merchant and controlled her extensive property in that city.16 CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 267. It was left to the senior line of the Herles, which continued at Prideaux, to maintain the family’s traditions of parliamentary service in later centuries.