PEYNTOUR, Adam

Of age by August 1428, when he appeared as co-defendant in an assize of novel disseisin, Peyntour was probably born at some date in the reign of Henry IV into an established Bodmin family.2 Ibid. His father, John, was a prominent merchant who served as mayor of the town for several years in the second half of the 1420s, while another kinsman, Thomas Peyntour, held the same office between 1422 and 1424.3 CPR, 1429-36, p. 481; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, i. 235; C1/9/145; 11/442; Cornw. RO, Bodmin bor. recs., B/Bod/302, f. 4; Wynell-Mayow mss, WM362. John, who is recorded attesting the Cornish shire elections in 1413 and 1422, was occasionally called upon to assist in local government, serving as a tax collector in Cornwall on four separate occasions between 1429 and 1434, and he was probably the man who in November 1429 was appointed clerk of the staple at Lostwithiel in succession to Richard Hervy*.4 C219/11/1; 13/1; CFR, xv. 294, 329; xvi. 68, 192; The Commons 1381-1421, iii. 361; CPR, 1429-36, p. 24; E179/87/70B; Cornw. RO, Truro bor. recs., B/TRU/16. It is uncertain for how long John Peyntour served as clerk of the staple, for although by 26 Sept. 1430 John Lower* was executing the office, he may have been acting as Peyntour’s deputy: C241/228/16.

In the light of John Peyntour’s prominence it is highly probable that his more obscure son owed his returns to the Parliaments of 1431 and 1432 to his father’s influence. Nothing has been discovered of his activities while in the Commons, but it may be significant that John Peyntour was among the collectors of the tax granted by the Commons on the first of these occasions.