COUCHE, Ralph (1535-c.88), of Glasney, nr. Penryn, Cornw.

Couche was brought in for Penryn by his father, who had made a fortune out of the lands of Glasney college at the dissolution of the monasteries, and who was mayor of the borough in 1558. With the accession of Elizabeth, the Killigrew influence in Penryn became too powerful for Couche’s father, with whom John Killigrew I was at feud over the fee farm of the borough and the former possessions of Glasney. Couche may have been returned at Grampound through the Arundells of Lanherne, to whom he was related through his wife. His fellow-Member in 1559, Sir John Radcliffe, had similar connexions.2Chantry Certs. Cornw. ed. Snell, 8 n, 37, 55; CPR, 1548-9, p. 176; 1549-50, p. 106; 1563-6, p. 55; CSP Dom. Add. 1566-79, pp. 509-10; Req. 3/34/88; Vis. Conrw. 4, 485.

Couche made his will at Glasney in January 1588. He left the site of Glasney college to his mother with reversion to the son of his brother John, and after him to a cousin, Ralph Couche of Bodmin. The Ralph Couche of Glasney who brought an action in the court of requests in 1602 and who released lands in Penryn to James Mathew in 1608, was probably his cousin and eventual heir.3Truro Mus. HB1/11, 24; Req. 2/164/35.