Family and Education

b. aft. 1376, yr. s. of Sir John St. Aubyn (d.1383) of Combe Raleigh by Joan, da. of Sir James Chudleigh* of Ashton and Shirwell, Devon. m. bef. 1410, Katherine (d.1420), da. of Sir Robert Chalons*, 2da.1

Offices Held

Biography

There were two branches of the St. Aubyn family living in the West Country at the end of the 14th century, one settled in the north of Devon, the other, to which this shire knight belonged, having lands in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. In 1383, when John’s father died, the heir to these estates was his elder son, Guy, then aged seven, who having married one of Sir Richard Cergeaux’s* daughters, died at some point between 1391 and 1407 (by which date his widow had married Richard de Vere, earl of Oxford), whereupon the lands came into John’s own possession. His father had held the manors of Alston Sutton in Somerset, Combe Raleigh and ‘Uppetons Prudhomme’ in Devon, and eight manors in Cornwall. The Cornish estates were settled on John and his wife and heirs in 1412, his father-in-law, Sir Robert Chalons, assisting in the transaction. Alston Sutton and Combe Raleigh were held in dower by his mother and her third husband, Sir Thomas Pomeroy*, and probably never came into his hands, for he died five years before she did. At the time of his death, however, he was said to be in possession of the manor of Tregony, in Cornwall, probably acquired through the machinations of his stepfather against Edward Pomeroy*.2

St. Aubyn has left little trace of his activities beyond a few deeds relating to his property and the report of two cases of assault, one of which involved serious injury to Thomas Bacot*, Bishop Beaufort’s bailiff of the liberty of Taunton. He was one of the four men whose names were written on the indenture recording the election for Devon, held at Exeter castle on Christmas Eve 1409, to the Parliament of January following, and his own return to the Commons followed four years later, despite his lack of experience in local administration. St. Aubyn was probably in London in January 1415, when his wife gave birth to their daughter, Margaret, at the abbey of the minoresses of St. Clare outside Aldgate. A participant in Henry V’s second expedition to France in 1417, he was awarded custody of Faugueron and Courtonne. He died, presumably at home, on 14 Oct. 1418, whereupon his lands were divided between his two daughters. Both were under age and, accordingly, first Sir Robert Chalons, their grandfather, and then Sir William Bodrugan* were granted the wardship of their property. Bodrugan married the elder girl, Joan, to his brother Otto, while Margaret was married to Reynold, son of John Tretherf*. St. Aubyn’s widow died in 1420, and was buried in the house of the Carmelite friars in London.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Notes

• 1. CIPM, xvi. 143-6; Vivian, Vis Cornw. 437.
• 2. Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1950), 951; CIPM, xvi. 143-6; CPR, 1385-9, p. 180; CCR, 1385-9, pp. 241, 326, 355; 1419-22, p. 23; C138/38/39.
• 3. C219/10/5; Gesta Hen. V ed. Williams, 276; CAD iv. A8535, 8745, 9927; CFR, xiv. 303, 351; C138/38/39; C139/31/66, 46/46; E159/184 Hil m. 18d, 186 Trin. m. 12.