TREBELL, John

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 640.

Trebell does not appear to have been a litigious man: in their majority, his appearances in the records of the royal law courts arose from business transactions that had gone wrong. Thus, in the autumn of 1417 his arrest was ordered alongside that of Nicholas Radford*, Thomas Dowrich I* and John Vyel of Bristol (the former two frequent associates of his),3 KB27/652, rex rot. 1. because one John Severell, for whom they had stood surety, had failed to appear.4 KB27/626, rex rot. 8. A rare occasion on which Trebell himself may have been guilty of unlawful conduct was a purported trespass committed in association with his Exeter neighbour Robert Eston in the final years of Richard II’s reign or the early years of that of Henry IV, proceedings over which were still in progress as late as 1427.5 CPR, 1422-9, p. 371.

It was a curious coincidence that precisely at the time when Trebell was returned to his second Parliament, after an interval of more than five years, he should have been appointed to his only recorded office under the Crown, a commission to inquire into dilapidation caused in the Dorset manors of Gussage ‘Bohun’ and Marshwood, parcel of the earldom of March, while they had been in the custody of the recently deceased Sir Richard Stafford*.6 E159/203, commissiones Trin. rot. 1.

At the time of Trebell’s death, which occurred before June 1431, he was once again being sought by the sheriff of Devon, on this occasion so that he might pay to the Crown his fine for an assault on Walter Reynell† of which he had been convicted. Proceedings against him were only terminated when the sheriff informed the court of King’s bench of his demise.7 KB27/681, rex rot. 12d. The execution of his will was entrusted to his ‘brother’, Richard Haretrowe.8 CP40/687, rot. 233.