LUCCOMBE, Thomas

Luccombe’s early life and education are obscure, but he may have received some training in the law, even though his career was otherwise that of a minor landed gentleman. As a younger son he did not stand to inherit any of the family lands, but he was amply provided for by his marriage to the heiress of a landowner from the Bodmin region. As a result of this marriage he acquired estates stretching across some 700 acres in the Cornish parishes of Cardinham, Bodmin and Blisland, as well as more than £6 of annual rents.5 Cornw. Feet of Fines, ii. no. 945. Probably also by this marriage he came into possession of some 200 acres of land at Challonsleigh (in Plympton St. Mary) in neighbouring Devon. His tenure of these lands was not to remain undisturbed, for a marriage contract agreed in late 1438 between Ralph Reskymer and the powerful Sir Thomas Arundell* provided that Arundell should begin litigation on Reskymer’s behalf against Luccombe over possession of his manor of Carbilly (in Cardinham), and long after Thomas’s death his son was still engaged in the defence of his title.6 CAD, iv. A10006, 10181. In addition, tenure of property at Cardinham also brought Luccombe into conflict with the lord of that manor, the wealthy Sir John Dynham, over the extent of their respective holdings.7 CP40/723, rot. 105; 725, rot. 417. Simultaneously, his title to his property at Challonsleigh came under attack from John Serle alias Silverlock*, to whom he had leased it in 1429 for a term of years. As the rent fell into arrears, Luccombe sought to reclaim his property, but was challenged by Serle in the courts.8 CP40/687, rots. 334, 581.

There is nothing to suggest that Luccombe was himself an artisan, but his family may in some way have been connected with the crafts, for in 1424 he was accused alongside his brother John of threatening the life of one Robert Stokkus, whose apprentice John Luccombe was said to have abducted.9 C1/6/260. Some 20 years later Thomas sued John Harry, a tailor from St. Austell, whom he had retained at Carbilly, for absconding from his service before the end of his contracted term.10 CPR, 1441-6, p. 305. He continued his association with his brother and it was alongside him that he attested the Cornish shire elections of 1427, held at Lostwithiel (the borough John had represented in 1425). By virtue of his tenure of his wife’s estates, Thomas Luccombe was a man of some standing in the town of Bodmin, and soon rose to be elected its mayor in October 1438. He went on to hold the office for two successive terms, and was still in post when in the spring of 1440 he was appointed one of the collectors of the subsidy granted by the Commons a few weeks earlier.11 Truro bor. recs. B/Tru/18. Luccombe’s administrative experience probably played its part in his return to Parliament for Bodmin not much over a year after the end of his second mayoralty. He was himself present in the shire court at Launceston on 18 Jan. 1442 and once more attested the indenture recording the names of the representatives of shire and boroughs. By contrast, nothing is known of his contributions to the deliberations of the Commons, but within two days of the dissolution the government named him one of the collectors of the tax to which he had himself assented. It is unclear what led to this unusual appointment, as Members normally sought to avoid collecting the taxes they had themselves agreed.12 CFR, xvii. 221.

The focus of Luccombe’s subsequent career remained a local one at Bodmin, although he was present at the Cornish shire elections again in both 1453 and 1455. In the intervening years, he had come to play his part alongside a number of his more important neighbours, such as James Flamank* and Bartholomew Trott*, in the town’s drawn-out dispute with the prior of Bodmin over his seigneurial rights in the borough. From late 1453 the townsmen were said to have unlawfully fished in the prior’s fishery three times a week for a whole year, and in the following spring they broke the weir of the prior’s mill and carried off chattels worth £10. Successive complaints by the prior to the Westminster authorities finally led to the appointment of a commission of oyer and terminer headed by William, Lord Bonville*, in July 1455, but, perhaps as a result of the violence that swept the West Country in the second half of that year, this measure proved ineffective, and in September the burgesses struck again. On 17 Sept. and the two following Saturdays they interrupted divine service in the priory church and threatened the prior and canons. The disturbances culminated on Monday after Pentecost 1456, when an armed mob of 100 men broke through the priory gates into the precinct, forced their way through the church doors, dragged off two of the canons, and while ransacking the surrounding buildings took goods worth £200. The government finally acted by appointing a fresh commission of oyer and terminer, and the matter was assigned to the arbitration of the royal justices John Fortescue* and Nicholas Aysshton*. Yet, their settlement did not last, and a renewed dispute between town and priory was ongoing in Edward IV’s reign, when Luccombe’s son and namesake was mayor of Bodmin.13 CPR, 1452-61, pp. 255, 308; C1/33/29; CP40/779, rot. 90.

It may have been the former MP who served on a commission of inquiry into acts of piracy in the south-west appointed by the short-lived Yorkist administration of late 1460. If so, he probably died not long after. His son served as mayor of Bodmin in the years 1463-8, 1471-2 and 1477-84, and attested the Cornish shire elections of 1455, 1467, 1478 and June 1483, on the first occasion, when he appeared alongside his father, being described as ‘junior’.14 Maclean, i. 235; CAD, ii. C2596; C67/46, m. 28; Trevelyan Pprs. (Cam. Soc. lxvii), i. 87-88; C219/16/3; 17/1, 3; Bodmin bor. recs. B/Bod/302; Bodmin Church (Cam. Miscellany, vii), 28. A lawyer, and clearly a supporter of the house of York, he served on the quorum of the Cornish bench for several spells from early 1467 until his death, with the exception of the Readeption, as well as being appointed to a number of royal commissions under Edward IV and Henry VII.15 Cornw. RO, Liskeard bor. recs. B/Lis/265, m. 2; Bodmin bor. recs. B/Bod/11; C67/46, m. 28. He died in early 1492. As his son Henry had predeceased him, his heirs were his two daughters, Mary, who married first John Treffry and secondly Richard Vaughan, and Joan, who married Richard Flamank of Boscarne.16 CP40/731, rot. 411; 773, rot. 453; E306/9/7; C1/20/154; 36/67-68; 174/13; 1002/32-36.