Family and Education

s. of Reynold Tretherf. m. by 1420, Joan (?Trenewith) of Ladock, Cornw., 1s. 1da.1

Offices Held

Escheator, Devon and Cornw. 29 Nov. 1427-4 Nov. 1428.

Commr. to assess a grant, Cornw. Apr. 1431; of inquiry Dec. 1432 (wastes at Helston), Feb., Sept. 1434 (piracy); array Jan. 1436; to distribute a tax allowance May 1437.

Biography

A number of deeds have survived which indicate that Tretherf had many, if not necessarily large, landed holdings in Cornwall. Grants from his father as early as 1380, and conveyances and leases by and to Tretherf himself, relate mainly to properties near Truro. Their actual extent and value is unknown, but his heir, Reynold, was to pay 44s.5¾d. as relief for two parts of a knight’s fee in Veryan, namely at Trevilveth, Trepoll and Penmenna. John also held unspecified properties in the hundred of Lesnewth, along with the advowson of the church of Ladock, to which, in 1414, he had presented another Reynold Tretherf (possibly his half-brother). Ladock came to him by a marriage which linked him to the closely related families of Trenewith and Bodrugan, and all of the surviving Tretherf deeds were witnessed by one or another of these kinsmen. Some indication of his financial standing is suggested by a marriage agreement which he made with Thomas Hendour, esquire, whereby his daughter, Maud, was to marry Hendour’s son and heir, Thomas: Tretherf promised to pay Hendour 80 marks, the latter to settle on the couple lands worth £10 a year.2

Such of Tretherf’s activities as involved governmental decisions were curiously limited. Indeed, before he first appeared in Parliament in 1420 he had done little more than act as farmer, jointly with Roger Wyke*, of lands in Devon and Somerset in 1406, and serve in France in the retinue of Edward, Lord Courtenay, in 1415, although the latter may well have taken him to the field of Agincourt. He was more active in the public service from 1427 onwards, and this led to his re-appearance in Parliament after an absence of 17 years. However, he had been present at the Cornish elections to the Parliaments of 1421 (May), 1423, 1425, 1431, 1432, 1433 and 1435. Apart from his friendship with Sir William Bodrugan (his fellow shire knight in 1420), Tretherf was also on good terms with Sir Thomas Pomeroy*. Indeed, he sided with him in the dispute over the Pomeroy estates: Edward Pomeroy* alleged that he helped Sir Thomas break into his manor-house at Tregony with a force of 200 men, assaulted his servants, and locked up his wife without food or drink for two days before evicting her. Tretherf died shortly before 3 July 1444.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Notes

Date of Death: Reg. Lacy (Canterbury and York Soc. lx), 5.

• 1. Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 366, 497; CAD, iv. A8922, 9998, 10141; v. 238.
• 2. CAD, iv. 8621, 8922, 9797, 9836, 9914, 9960, 9998, 10020, 10040, 10141, 10285; v. A10614, 10882, 12071; Feudal Aids, i. 240; Reg. Stafford ed. Hingeston-Randolph, 182, 355; Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. ed. Emden, iii. 1897; C1/69/98.
• 3. CFR, xiii. 55-56; DKR, xliv. 570; C219/12/5, 13/2, 3, 14/2-5; C1/6/91.