HERVY, Richard

More may be added to the earlier biography.5 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 360-1.

In early 1415 Hervy took the bailiwick of the stannary of Blackmore to farm from the duchy bailiff, William Alcock, for a term of four years at an annual rent of 11 marks. In the first instance, this arrangement worked to the parties’ mutual advantage, but in February 1418 the farm was in arrears by £3 13s. 4d., and that autumn Alcock resumed his office and began legal proceedings against Hervy and his sureties.6 CP40/673, rot. 459; CPR, 1416-22, p. 232. It is not certain exactly when Alcock dismissed his defaulting deputy, but when the stannary account came to be audited in March 1419, neither Hervy nor Alcock appeared.7 SC6/820/8, rot. 5d. This was not the only occasion on which Hervy’s stannary office proved onerous. That same autumn, John Trevilias of Treliver, a tin merchant, brought a suit for a debt of ten marks under a bond that Hervy was said to have sealed in November 1412, an accusation which the bailiff denied.8 CP40/635, rot. 327.

The extent of Hervy’s property is uncertain, but it is known that he held at least one tenement in Lostwithiel from the town’s one-time mayor, Robert Grythyowe, and Thomas Lamleder.9 CP40/632, rot. 418. The extent of Hervy’s connexions among his Lostwithiel neighbours is hard to judge from the few surviving deeds sealed in the town, but he is recorded on at least one occasion attesting a deed among some of the borough’s leading men, perhaps an indication of the standing he enjoyed.10 Cornw. RO, Lostwithiel bor. recs., B/Los/210/1.

Some of Hervy’s activities are difficult to distinguish from those of a contemporary Liskeard tanner, but it was probably the latter man, rather than the Lostwithiel MP, who at some point in the second half of Henry V’s reign was accused by John Jaybien† of having assisted Sir Ralph Botreaux* in depriving him of his lands in Liskeard and elsewhere.11 C1/5/193. The identity of Botreaux’s associate is proven by another contemporary Chancery suit against Jaybien, in which the tanner stood surety for the plaintiff: C1/5/194.