WOLLEY, Roger II

When the infant Henry VI came to the throne the Wolleys had already been established in Lostwithiel for at least three generations. Roger’s grandfather, William Wolley, had been mayor in 1391-2, and his father, Walter, had served as portreeve of the borough in 1409-10.3 Cornw. RO, Wynell-Mayow mss, WM350, 353; Arundell mss, AR1/399; Lostwithiel bor. recs., B/Los/210/1. Walter died before 1413, and five years later Roger’s elder brother, John, succeeded to the family property, which apart from tenements in the town of Lostwithiel also included land in neighbouring Poldue, near the chapel of St. Peter and in Penkneth (in Lanlivery).4 Cornw. RO, Arundell (Tywardreath) mss, ART3/60; Lostwithiel bor. recs., B/Los/205-7, 210/1, 213; Wynell-Mayow mss, WM355. The value of these holdings is not recorded, but it is unlikely to have been substantial, for Roger was at times styled a mere yeoman.5 KB27/722, rot. 89. Roger is first heard of in August 1425, when the notoriously violent Richard Tregoose* was said to have attacked him with a dagger. The exact date that he succeeded his brother is not known, but he had done so by the autumn of 1442.6 KB27/729, rex rot. 1; CP40/727, rot. 331d. Nevertheless, on the occasion of his return to the Commons he certainly fulfilled the statutory requirement for residence in Lostwithiel, for he had established himself in the borough as a merchant. No details of Wolley’s commercial dealings have been discovered, but it is likely that he traded across the Channel, for in July 1435 commissioners headed by Thomas Carminowe* were ordered to arrest him and three associates and to produce them in Chancery to answer unspecified charges, quite possibly on one or more counts of piracy.7 CPR, 1429-36, p. 474; CP40/727, rot. 331d.

It is probable that such disreputable activities accounted for Wolley’s failure to secure office under the Crown or the duchy of Cornwall, but it did not stand in the way of his advancement in local society and in the autumn of 1442 he was chosen mayor of his home town.8 C241/230/31. This term as mayor came in spite of a clash with the influential Stephen Kendale† in the previous year,9 KB27/722, rot. 89. and marked the zenith of Wolley’s career. While he subsequently served occasionally on local juries, he soon settled his property on feoffees, and died before the end of 1449.10 C139/115/25, m. 2; Arundell (Tywardreath) mss, ART3/60; Lostwithiel bor. recs., B/Los/207.