Family and Education

s. of Robert Trevanion by (?Margaret), da. and coh. of Ralph Arundell alias Petit of Carhayes. m. Joan, 2s. 1da.

Offices Held

Coroner, Cornw. by Jan. 1416-June 1426.1

J.p. Cornw. 6 Aug. 1416-July 1424.

Commr. of array, Cornw. Apr. 1418, Mar. 1419; inquiry Feb. 1419, Devon, Cornw. July 1419 (concealments), Aug. 1426 (necromancy).

Biography

Richard was a descendant of John Trevanion, a j.c.p. in Edward III’s reign, and although his name was omitted from the family pedigree in a visitation of 1620, he was evidently the father of the Thomas Trevanion through whom the family descended until at least the 17th century. He held lands in Veryan; and he and his brother, Thomas, jointly acted as patrons of the church of Grade in 1409. It was during his lifetime that the family estates were first centred on Carhayes, on the south coast of Cornwall. This important property had been occupied in 1379 by Trevanion’s grandfather, Ralph Arundell, who arranged that after his death it should pass to John Trevarthian* and his first wife, Joan (one of Arundell’s daughters), though in the meantime it was to be held by another son-in-law, Robert Trevanion (Richard’s father). In the early years of the 15th century Carhayes was in the possession of Robert Hill, j.c.p., probably in right of his wife, Joan Bodrugan, Trevarthian’s widow, but by a transaction completed in 1406, which also involved the manors of Trevayler and Boswellick (in St. Allen), it was agreed that it should pass after the judge’s death to Richard Trevanion and his wife. Nevertheless, although Hill was still alive in 1425, Trevanion was recorded living at Carhayes much earlier.2

Trevanion was also related to Hill’s wife, Joan Bodrugan. The latter’s first husband had been John Trevanion (either an uncle or an elder brother of his), and this connexion explains why Richard actively supported her son, William Bodrugan II* alias Trenewith, when, in 1398, he tried to wrest possession of some of the Bodrugan estates from Sir Richard Cergeaux’s* widow. This and other references to Trevanion suggest that he was a man with no great respect for law and order. Allegations that he led an armed assembly in 1392 in support of John Tregoose* against the estate staff of Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and that he took illegal possession of goods from a stolen ship in 1402, were followed by his forcible eviction of Katherine St. Aubyn from the manor of ‘Broungolowe’, Cornwall, in about 1417, and by a complaint by John Fursdon* in 1424 that he and his relatives had broken into his property at Fursdon in Liskeard, taken his charters, carried off his stepdaughter, and caused his wife to have miscarriage. Despite all this, Trevanion was of sufficient standing in the county to be a member of the commission of the peace, to act as surety for the good behaviour of a fellow Cornishman, and to be asked to arbitrate in a local dispute. He was present at the elections held in Cornwall for the Parliaments of 1411, 1413 (May), 1416 (Mar.), 1421 (May), 1421 (Dec.), 1422 and 1423. Nor did his violent behaviour prevent his appointment as a coroner, though ill health may have limited his activities somewhat. By November 1412 he was said to have been removed from office as ‘too sick and infirm’ to carry out his duties, but he was still coroner in June 1426 when again adversely reported upon, this time as ‘too sick and aged to travail’, the sheriff being then ordered to elect a successor.3 In November that year he was granted at the Exchequer custody of the estates of his kinsman, Oliver Wyse*, which he was to hold jointly with the latter’s brother John*. However, he died before Easter following, by which time John was the sole custodian.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Notes

• 1. C242/8; CCR, 1409-13, p. 372; 1422-9, pp. 108, 240.
• 2. CAD, iv. A10070, 10291; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 367, 458; CPL, vii. 313; CCR, 1405-9, p. 280; Reg. Lacy (Canterbury and York Soc. lxii), 116; Vis. Cornw. (Harl. Soc. ix), 239; Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1950), 709, 778, 855, 867, 871; Reg. Stafford, 355. The family relationships are confusing: Trevarthian’s wife, Joan Arundell or Petit, cannot have married Robert Trevanion (as suggested by C. Henderson in Essays, 187) for Trevarthian outlived her to marry again.
• 3. CCR, 1396-9, p. 268; 1402-5, pp. 32, 315; 1409-13, p. 372; 1422-9, pp. 108, 240; 1441-7, p. 111; CPR, 1391-6, p. 168; 1422-9, p. 229; CFR, xi. 254; C1/4/7, 5/41; C219/10/6, 11/1, 8, 12/5, 6, 13/1, 2; CAD, iv. A10358.
• 4. CFR, xv. 154; C44/26/4.