COKEWORTHY, John

More can be added to the earlier biography.4 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 621-2.

The bishops of Exeter and Chichester aside, throughout his career Cokeworthy found employment in the service of a variety of local gentry, and also of some men of national standing, as a feoffee, executor, attorney or general legal counsel.5 CP25(1)/45/79/24; CP40/745, rot. 441; 752, rots. 51, 497d; 779, rots. 181, 253; 780, rot. 55d. Thus, in the summer of 1433 he appeared as an attorney for Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, in the court of King’s bench,6 KB27/693, rot. 13d. in the later 1420s and 1430s the citizens of Exeter paid him for his services both locally and in London,7 Devon RO, Exeter city recs., receivers’ accts. 6-7 Hen. VI, m. 2d, 16-17 Hen. VI, m. 2. a few years later the burgesses of Launceston presented him with gifts of wine,8 Cornw. RO, Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/141, m. 1d. and in the autumn of 1435 the prominent Devon esquire Roger Champernowne* employed him as receiver and factor. Within a few years, Cokeworthy’s relationship with Champernowne had turned sour, and litigation over the nature of his employment and the question of his account was to occupy the King’s courts for some time.9 CP40/755, rot. 519; 758, rot. 185d; 760, rot. 181; 786, rot. 46. Yet, others continued to retain him in a similar capacity, and in the autumn of 1453 he faced fresh allegations of having failed to provide an account for his term as receiver of John Serle alias Silverlock*.10 CP40/771, rot. 398. Probably connected with Cokeworthy’s dispute with Champernowne was his litigation against the Tavistock lawyer John Fitz*, but the details of their quarrel are obscure.11 CP40/760, rot. 309d; 766, rot. 55. The action taken against Cokeworthy in the summer of 1448 by Sir William Bourgchier, soon to be summoned to Parliament as Lord Fitzwaryn, and Thomas Ormond, the future earl of Ormond (respectively husbands of the daughters and coheiresses of (Sir) Richard Hankford*), who claimed that he had disseised their father-in-law in his lifetime of certain lands in Devon and Gloucestershire may well have been collusive.12 CP40/750, rot. 411. Certainly, Cokeworthy had prior connexions with Bourgchier, whose co-plaintiff he had been in 1444 in a suit over the removal of goods from Northam.13 CP40/734, rot. 252.

It was ironically not long after Cokeworthy’s tenure of the Cornish shrievalty that a substantial quantity of his plate, indicative of his considerable wealth, was stolen from Launceston priory. The items purloined included two dozen silver spoons, two silver salt cellars, and a dozen other silver vessels.14 KB9/287/9.

At some point in later life Cokeworthy married a second wife, Thomasina, who survived him and became executrix of his will. She subsequently went on to marry, as his third wife, Thomas Bonville*, younger brother of William, Lord Bonville*, whom she also survived, finally marrying Sir Thomas Seymour of Beckington, Somerset.15 C67/46, m. 7; CP40/826, rots. 255, 349. Cokeworthy’s other executors were Richard Denshill and Richard Chichester, who for some years after his death (which occurred before Easter 1463) were engaged in untangling his convoluted affairs.16 CP40/808, rot. 259; 826, rots. 255, 349.