ARUNDELL, Sir Thomas

To add to the earlier biography,3 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 62-63. it should be noted that Arundell was a regular attender at the sessions of the peace and of oyer and terminer, and appears to have taken his judicial responsibilities seriously. Thus, he became intimately involved in the drawn-out and violent quarrel between Richard Tregoose* and Robert Borlas. In August 1428 Arundell himself arrested Tregoose, only to see him escape, and it may have given him some degree of satisfaction to be among the justices of oyer and terminer who heard his indictment in the autumn of 1434.4 E101/554/39, 40; 555/23, mm. 15-16; CP40/732, rots. 117, 343; 734, rot. 311d; KB9/226/77d; KB27/695, rex rot. 3d; 698, rex rot. 1; 714, rex rot. 20; 718, rex rots. 27, 27d, 33, 33d; 729, rex rot. 1; 742, rots. 112d, 117; E143/22/5, m. 4; E207/17/2, no. 108; C1/10/41. The accusations of packing juries which were leveled against him on several occasions may represent little more than the skilful maneuverings of competent lawyers.5 JUST1/1536, rot. 27; 1540, rots. 81d, 83d; CP40/691, rot. 130.

Indicative of Arundell’s standing in Cornwall is the range of members of the county gentry and greater clergy (men as diverse as the lawyer John Jaybien†, members of the family of Colyn of Helland and the prior of Launceston) who called upon him to witness their property transactions. In his father’s and elder brother’s lifetimes he did so alongside them, but later he was associated with members of some of the most important families in the region, including Sir William Bonville*, Sir Ralph Botreaux* and Sir John Herle*, and often took pride of place over them.6 Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR1/351; Edgcombe mss, ME772/1-2; Liskeard bor. recs., B/Lis/79; Plymouth and W. Devon RO, Yonge mss, 107/25.

Like many of his neighbours Sir Thomas had interests in the Cornish tin industry, or at least suffered from the privileged position afforded to the tinners. He was a regular litigant in the stannary courts, pursuing members of the mining community for real or imagined breaches of his privileges by taking firewood or depasturing grass.7 SC2/157/3, rot. 1; 6, rot. 2.

Arundell was succeeded by his elder son, John, during whose minority the family estates were placed in the custody of Thomas Portalyn* and John Devenish*, two servants of the young Henry Beauchamp, duke of Warwick, probably acting on behalf of their master.8 CFR, xviii. 3-4. This grant may have played havoc with the original intentions of Sir Thomas, who had settled part of his property on feoffees to provide for his younger children. Within a few years, Arundell’s younger son Ralph (the only younger descendant left without provision after the respective death and marriage of his sisters Philippa and Elizabeth), was forced to bring proceedings in Chancery against two of them, Thomas Bere* and Edward Aysshton*.9 C1/47/253-4; 57/347-9.