Family and Education

b. by 1532, 1st s. of Richard Roscarrock. m. Jane, da. and h. of William Pentire of Pentire, 6s. 5da. suc. fa. 26 Oct. 1575.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Cornw. 1585-6.

Biography

Thomas Roscarrock was rising 21 when returned as one of the Members for Liskeard to the first Parliament of Mary’s reign. Family interest accounts for his return: the Roscarrocks owned some property in the town and his father secured his own election as one of the knights for Cornwall. Neither father nor son opposed the initial measures towards the reintroduction of Catholicism in 1553, but the son was not re-elected with the father in 1554. If his early introduction to Parliament stimulated an interest in public service, he was not given a second opportunity to prove himself in that respect until after his father’s death 20 years later. Although never put on the bench he was then pricked sheriff and named to several inquiries into piracy. While sheriff he himself was charged with piracy following the boarding of a Venetian galleon called Il Lombardo off Cape St. Vincent by the crew of his ship, the Roscarrock, but the Council accepted his explanation. In 1576 he tried to buy the manor of Colquite in St. Mabyn, but to no avail. Within a few years he was in debt to Thomas Cock of Bodmin, ‘a man of carnal disposition and a great usurer’, to the sum of about £700, and he died on 3 Feb. 1587 ‘leaving ... his son and heir deeply indebted as well to divers others’ as well as to Cock, the money outstanding to Cock alone amounting to £1,100.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: J. J. Goring

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/173/9. Vis. Cornw. ed. Vivian, 400.
• 2. Duchy Cornw. RO, 491, m. 21v; Cornw. RO, Liskeard mayor’s accts. 1575-6, m. 1; 1582, f. 1; CSP Dom. 1581-90, pp. 29, 310, 316-17; APC, xiv. 64-65; 74, 85; xv. 244-5; SP12/187, ff. 33, 177; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, i. 562-3; ii. 481 n.; Req.2/121/6, 124/52; C142/216/86.