PENROSE, John (c.1611-52), of Penrose, Sithney, Cornw.

The Penroses of Penrose, near Helston, traced their family tree back to the thirteenth century; one ancestor, Richard Penrose, was chosen as sheriff of Cornwall in 1526. The family were deeply rooted in the gentry networks of western Cornwall, and by the early seventeenth century had also established marriage alliances with important families further to the east, including the Rashleighs of Fowey and the Trefusises of Mylor.14Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 366-7. John Penrose’s father died while he was still a minor, and it was not until 1632, at the age of 21, that he went to study at Lincoln’s Inn.15LI Admiss. i. 216. He was still in London in 1633, when he married a daughter of Sir Anthony Buggs of Harlow in Essex.16LMA, St Benet, Paul’s Wharf par. regs. Penrose had returned to Cornwall by the end of the decade. He signed the Protestation at Sithney in the spring of 1642, and he may have remained neutral during the first civil war, as he was still living at Penrose when he drew up his will in February 1643, and there is no evidence that his estate was sequestered by the king.17Cornw. Protestation Returns, 30; PROB11/224/129.

Penrose’s election as recruiter MP for Helston in April 1647 was almost certainly because of his personal influence in the borough, aided by the sudden impotence of the traditional patrons, the royalist Godolphins of Godolphin. Penrose’s activities at Westminster were slight. He was allowed to return to Cornwall with Thomas Gewen* that August, and was absent from the call of the House in the following October, with his fine for non-attendance being rescinded a month later.18CJ v. 285b, 330a, 348b. He may not have returned to Westminster by February 1648, when he was allowed a further six weeks absence, and he was excused for not attending the call of 24 April.19CJ v. 457b, 543b. He seems to have sat briefly in the early summer of that year, as he was named to a committee on the ordinance for the abolition of deans and chapters on 16 June; but three days earlier he had been granted further leave of absence, and he was again excused at the call of the House on 26 September.20CJ v. 598a, 602a; vi. 34b. Penrose was absent from the Commons at Pride’s Purge on 6 December 1648, and he did not take his seat thereafter, although he had not been formally excluded from Parliament.21Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 382.

As his absence from Westminster suggests, Penrose’s main role during the later 1640s was as a local administrator. He was serving on the Cornish commission of the peace by the summer of 1646, and he was present at the Launceston assizes in March 1648, working with his kinsman, John Trefusis, and other west Cornish parliamentarians like John Thomas*.22Western Circuit Assize Orders ed. Cockburn, 240, 275. He was first named to the Cornish assessment commission in June 1647, and in April 1648 he was one of those commissioners who instructed the county treasurer to reimburse Colonel Robert Bennett* for paying off the supernumerary soldiers at Pendennis Castle.23A. and O.; FSL, X.d.483 (12). On 25 November 1648 Penrose and Richard Erisey* were instructed by the Commons to take care of the collection of the local assessment.24CJ vi. 87b. Penrose was also active in the militia commission. He and his kinsman, Nicholas Trefusis*, were added to the commission by order of the Commons on 22 May 1648, and on 13 June Penrose was sent back to Cornwall ‘to settle the militia there’, and went on to be named to the new militia commission appointed on 2 December.25CJ v. 569a, 598a. A. and O. His local activities did not cease after the execution of the king and the creation of the republic, as he continued to be named to the assessment commissions in 1649 and 1650, he was made a militia captain in February 1650, and his place as justice of the peace was confirmed in February 1651.26A. and O.; C231/6, p. 205.

Penrose died in 1652, and his will was proved in July of that year. Under its terms, his four daughters received £250 each, and his younger son £400, with the manor of Penrose being entrusted to friends and kinsmen, including John Trefusis.27PROB11/224/129. Penrose was succeeded by his eldest son, also John, who married the daughter of a Salisbury doctor and died in 1680.28Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 367; CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 521. Cornw. RO, BRA/1681/1.