TREFUSIS, Nicholas (1592-1650), of Landew, Lezant, Cornw.

The Trefusises of Landew formed a cadet branch of the Trefusis family of Mylor. Nicholas Trefusis was closely connected to the godly gentry of eastern Cornwall through his mother, who was born a Coryton and after her husband’s death remarried Ambrose Manaton*. During the 1620s Trefusis joined Manaton and William Coryton* in supporting Sir John Eliot’s† opposition to George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, and he owed his seat at Newport in the 1628 Parliament to Eliot’s patronage. During the 1630s Trefusis refused to pay the knighthood fine or to contribute to the bishops’ wars, and it was as an opponent of the crown that he was returned for Newport in the elections for the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640.15HP Commons 1604-1629. There is no evidence that he was active in this Parliament, and he was not re-elected for the Long Parliament later in the year.

At the outbreak of civil war, Trefusis sided with Parliament. On 28 July 1642 he was made a deputy lieutenant of Cornwall on the order of Parliament, but he greeted to onset of war with trepidation.16CJ ii. 694b; LJ v. 244b. On 29 September 1642 he wrote to the parliamentarian leader Sir Richard Buller*, promising to join him at Launceston, but expressing concern that ‘as things now stand I believe you will not be able to make any way towards them until you hear certainly out of Devon’, and advising him to send an urgent request for support to Sir Samuel Rolle*.17Buller Pprs. 72. He was probably the ‘Master Trefusis’ listed among Buller’s associates holed up in Plymouth in October.18New News from Cornw. (1642), 6 (E.124.20). In February 1643, once the parliamentarians had prevented Sir Ralph Hopton’s* first attempt on Plymouth, Trefusis was a leading voice among those calling for a local truce. Hopton agreed, and a seven-day ceasefire began on 28 February to allow negotiations to take place, although the hoped-for local armistice did not follow.19Coate, Cornw. 54-5; Bellum Civile, 34. With the continuation of royalist rule, Trefusis lost control of his Cornish estates, although it is unclear whether it was Nicholas or his cousin (and county committeeman), John Trefusis, who was considered ‘a great sufferer for Parliament’ and awarded £6 a day compensation in September 1645.20CCAM 1328; CJ iv. 278b. When the New Model army invaded Cornwall in the spring of 1646, Trefusis was quick to return home, and in June 1646 he was presented with a gift of sugar by the Launceston corporation.21Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/180.

Another gentleman favoured with saccharine gifts from Launceston at this time was the Presbyterian Thomas Gewen*, who in September 1646 was chosen as the new recorder of the borough, replacing Trefusis’s stepfather, Ambrose Manaton.22Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/180-1, 350. As a leading figure in Launceston and Newport, Gewen must have already been well acquainted with Trefusis. They had both represented Newport in the 1620s, served as justices of the peace before the civil war, and were free burgesses of Launceston.23Western Circuit Assize Orders ed. Cockburn, 233; Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/350. It is therefore likely that when Trefusis was elected as recruiter MP for Cornwall on 21 December 1646 it was with the support of Gewen and his Presbyterian friends. Trefusis took the Covenant on 24 February 1647 and became a fairly active MP over the next few weeks, as the Presbyterian interest reasserted its position in Parliament. He was named to committees to investigate written attacks on Parliament (15 Mar.), to prevent the appointment of malignant ministers (22 Mar.), and to consider a petition to Sir Thomas Fairfax* (27 Mar.) – the latter two committees also including Gewen among their members.24CJ v. 97a, 112b, 119b, 127b. In early April Trefusis returned to Cornwall for two months (perhaps in connection with his reappointment as a justice of the peace in March), and was present in the Commons only sporadically thereafter, being granted further leave of absence on 17 June.25CJ v. 200a, 237b, 248a. He had returned to Westminster by 21 July, when he was named to a committee to consider a petition of maimed soldiers, widows and orphans. By this time attendance in the House was very thin, and the committee list very short, although again Gewen was present alongside Trefusis.26CJ v. 252b.

There is no evidence of Trefusis’s movements during the ‘forcing of the Houses’ later in July, although the army’s march on London in August and the Independent resurgence thereafter may have influenced his reluctance to attend the Commons. He was absent without excuse on 9 October (although his fine was later remitted), and was again given leave to go into the country on 17 December.27CJ v. 330a, 348b, 390a. With Westminster still dominated by Independents, Trefusis busied himself with the local administration. On 23 December 1647 he was ordered to go to Cornwall as one of the assessment commissioners; when he returned to Parliament in the early summer of 1648 he was named to committees to settle the militia; and on 29 May was charged with bringing in the Cornish militia ordinance and with drafting letters to Sir Hardress Waller*, the sheriff John Seyntaubyn* and others who had put down the royalist rising centred on Penzance.28CJ v. 400b, 551a, 569a, 576b; LJ x. 283a. On 8 June the Commons ordered Trefusis, with Gewen and Francis Buller I*, to go to Cornwall to put the militia ordinance into execution.29CJ v. 589b.

Trefusis was absent at the call of the House on 26 September 1648, but he was again at Westminster on 22 November, when he was added to the committee on an ordinance to bring in the assessments to pay the army, and on 25 November he was named to a committee to consider which castles and garrisons should be retained and which slighted.30CJ vi. 34b, 83b, 87a. As an associate of Gewen and the western Presbyterians, Trefusis was secluded at Pride’s Purge on 6 December 1648.31A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62). He continued to play some part in local politics, and was included in the commission of the peace in 1650, but he was no longer a man of any influence.32C193/13/3, f. 10. Trefusis died shortly afterwards and was buried at Lezant on 20 October 1650.33Cornw. RO, FP124/1/1. His only son, Thomas, had predeceased him, and by his will he divided his estate between his two daughters, Mary (the wife of Edward Herle* of Luxulyan) and Katherine.34PROB11/215/429.