TRESITHNEY, John

Tresithney came from a middling gentry family which took its name from the manor in the parish of Gwennap in western Cornwall. The family held some of their property from the powerful Arundells of Lanherne,5 Cornish Lands of the Arundells (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. n.s. xli), 37, 71, 94, 102; Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR1/174. and it seems probable that it was to this link that John owed his public career. In 1402 he served the wealthy Sir John Arundell I* as an official when the latter was sheriff of Cornwall, and five years later, during Sir John’s next shrievalty, he was appointed his under sheriff.6 CCR, 1402-5, p. 20; SC6/820/2, rot. 10d. At other times he attested Arundell’s property deeds, including those by which Sir John made provision for his younger children, and he was named among the feoffees on whom Arundell settled large parts of his estates as endowment for a family chantry. In recognition of his services, he was assigned a substantial legacy of ten marks in Arundell’s will.7 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 35-36, 246; Arundell mss, AR1/13, 19, 117, 175/1-2; AR20/17; AR21/2. Likewise, it was probably as a member of the Arundell circle that Tresithney attended the shire elections in the autumn of 1422 and attested the return of both Sir John and his eldest son, John*, as knights of the shire, as well as standing surety for the elder Arundell’s attendance. On this occasion as well as on that of Tresithney’s only other recorded attendance at a county election, in 1427, he also had personal reasons for wishing to be present, for in both those years his putative son Richard was chosen as one of the Members for Bodmin.8 C219/13/1, 5. Although by the time of his own election by the burgesses of Liskeard in 1429 Tresithney had already twice served as a royal commissioner, there can be little doubt that his return owed much to the influence of his patrons. One of the knights of the shire was Sir Thomas Arundell* of Tolverne, and among the witnesses to the sheriff’s indenture, which included the names of the county’s burgesses alongside those of the knights of the shire, were both Sir John Arundell and his youngest son, Renfrew*.9 C219/14/1.

The Arundells aside, Tresithney also commanded the respect of others among his neighbours, and he is found attesting the deeds of important south-western families like the St. Aubyns of Combe-Raleigh, as well as those of lesser men.10 CCR, 1422-9, pp. 119, 337; CAD, iv. A8535; Arundell mss, AR1/127, 387, 982. But not all exchanges between Tresithney and his neighbours were cordial. Another member of the Arundell circle to have entrusted him with the custody of some of his holdings was the former under sheriff John Tregoose†, who had settled certain properties on Tresithney with instructions to retain the profits and to pay them to his daughter Amy when she came of age or married. In the autumn of 1430, however, Amy’s husband Richard Penpons* petitioned the chancellor, claiming that Tresithney had received some 80 marks from the lands and was refusing to surrender them.11 C1/20/150; C244/4/72. Even more seriously, some years later John and Richard Tresithney were among the men whom Tregoose’s son, the notorious Richard*, accused of having conspired to have him indicted on trumped up charges of raping the daughter of one of the earl of Warwick’s villeins.12 CP40/733, rot. 303d; 734, rots. 311d, 315.

The extent of Tresithney’s landholdings, at least some of which were situated near the Arundell seat at St. Columb Major, is obscure, but in 1451 his widow was thought to hold property worth 40s. in the county, suggesting that her late husband could command at the very least three times that sum.13 Arundell mss, AR1/174; E179/87/92. In early 1426 some of these holdings in Bosoughan moor had been in dispute with William Priour and his wife Alice, but the outcome of the quarrel is not known.14 CP40/660, rots. 107d, 360d.

When Tresithney died on 1 Sept. 1445 he was alleged to have held no lands. Instead, the escheator’s inquisition provided the occasion for a major survey of the estates of the Arundells of Tolverne, of which he had been the last surviving feoffee and which he had controlled during the minority of Sir Thomas’s son and heir John, still only 18 when Tresithney died.15 C139/124/61; CFR, xviii. 1. The execution of his will was entrusted to his widow and two of his kinsmen, Thomas and Nicholas Tresithney.16 CP40/739, rot. 164; 740, rot. 369. His legitimate children aside, Tresithney also left at least one bastard son, known as Edmund Rethevos, an apprentice of the London tailor John Edy.17 E13/122, rot. 22.