Family and Education

b. c.1535, 2nd s. of Nicholas Kendall of Pelyn by Loveday, da. of John Fellow or Kellow of Launcells. m. Temperance (d.1579), da. and coh. of William Waye or Wayte of Lostwithiel, 3s. 5da.

Offices Held

Bailiff of Powder hundred, Cornw. prob. by 1564; mayor, Lostwithiel in Apr. 1572 and Oct. 1586.

Biography

Kendall, many of whose family represented Lostwithiel from the reign of Richard II to the eighteenth century, sat for the borough through his own local eminence. His contemporary Richard Carew noted

Mr. Will Kendall’s hospitality, while he lived and here kept house, deserveth a special remembrance, because for store of resort and frankness of entertainment it exceeded all others of his sort.

Kendall was to some extent overshadowed by his elder brother Walter, the j.p. He himself held only minor local office outside Lostwithiel, and little is known of him except for his lawsuits. It may have been in connexion with a Star Chamber case brought against him by one Henry Farnaby that the Privy Council ordered him, on 8 Nov. 1587, to remain in London until given leave to go home. The case may have been still unsettled when Kendall died Sept. 1591. His last Star Chamber examination, in which he was described as aged 55, is dated June 1590. His undated will was proved 26 June 1593.

The William Kendall who was granted in 1567 the monopoly of making alum in England for go years was described as of Launceston, and may or may not be another man.

St. Ch. 5/F1/18; Add. 14315, f. 39; Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 258-9; Paroch. Hist. Cornw. iii. 172; C219/28/19, 284/12; C3/105/32, 45, 107/37; Carew’s Surv. Cornw. ed. Halliday, 212; APC, xv. 281-2; PCC 54 Nevell; F. M. Hext, Lostwithiel, 93; CPR, 1560-3, p. 465.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes