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Ralph Trenoweth


Preferred Parents:
Father: Walter De Trenoweth, b. ABT 1288 in Cornwall, England   d. 27 JUL 1359 in Cornwall, England
Mother: Elizabeth ,   

Family 1: Joan Bodrugan,    b. ABT 1351 in St Endellion, Cornwall, England    d. 12 APR 1428
Family 2: Elizabeth Rushell,    b. 1320 in Tregothnan Manor, Truro, Cornwall, England    d. 1390 in Truro, Cornwall, England
  1. John Trenoweth, b. 1337 in Cornwall, England     d. 1375 in , Cornwall, , England
Sources:
  1. Title: The History of Parliament: TRENEWITH, Ralph I (d.1393)
    Author: TRENEWITH, Ralph I (d.1393), of Trenowth in St. Probus, Cornw. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 Available from Boydell and Brewer Ref Volumes: 1386-1421 Author: L. S. Woodger
    Publication: Name: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/trenewith-ralph-i-1393;
    Note: ConstituencyDates TRURO Jan. 1377 TRURO Oct. 1377 TRURO 1393 Family and Education s. of Walter Trenewith by his w. Elizabeth. m. (1) Elizabeth, da. of Richard Rushell, 3s. (1 prob. d.v.p.); (2) by 1380, Joan (c.1359-1428), da. and h. of Otto Bodrugan† (d.1389), of Bodrugan, wid. of John Trevanion, 3s. inc. William Bodrugan II*, 1da.1 Offices Held Controller of the stannaries, Cornw. bef. July 1367-Mich. 1368; receiver of the duchy of Cornwall in Cornw. Mich. 136-Easter 1377, for the princess of Wales bef. Easter 1377-c. Mich. 1379.2 Commr. of oyer and terminer, Cornw. July 1368; array May 1375, Apr. 1377, July 1377. J.p. Cornw. 26 Oct. 1369-c.1371, June 1373-4, July 1376-c.1379. Tax assessor, Cornw. May 1379. Justice of assize, Cornw. July 1380. Biography Ralph’s kinsmen, Michael Trenewith† and his son Ralph†, represented Cornwall in the Parliaments of 1338 and 1352, respectively. The career of the former affords a typical example of the malversation which flourished in the stannaries at that time: his lawful business operations included ownership of tin mines and loaning money; his criminal activities included smuggling, wrecking, fraud and coercion. But it would seem that Ralph, the MP for Truro, may be likened to Michael only in his more legitimate dealings: thus, from the 1360s onwards he traded in large quantities of tin which he took to be smelted and coined at Lostwithiel. (On one occasion, in 1385, he brought to be assayed a consignment weighing as much as 12,400 lbs.)3 Nor is there any evidence that he was unworthy of the trust placed in him as an officer of the duchy of Cornwall. Trenewith was a landowner of some substance. By a settlement made in 1359 he came into land on the manor of ‘Trenewith and Trewyshanec’ (probably in the parish of St. Probus), and six years later he was possessed of extensive properties near Looe. His holdings included land at Ventonwyn and Tresawle, situated near Truro, the borough which he represented in Parliament. Trenewith’s second marriage, which may have taken place before 1373, when he had dealings with his wife’s father, allied him to one of the most important families in Cornwall. By 1386 he had produced four children by this marriage who, under settlements made by their maternal grandfather, Otto Bodrugan, stood to inherit nearly all of the Bodrugan estates. Small wonder that the eventual heir, William renewith (Ralph’s only surviving son by this marriage), changed his name to Bodrugan.4 It was no doubt Trenewith’s interest in the tin trade which brought him into contact with the administration of the duchy of Cornwall. He was made responsible for the purchase and sale of tin to the use of Edward, the Black Prince, in about 1367, and became receiver of the prince’s estates in Cornwall two years later. As such in June 1376 he was commissioned to conduct an assession court, and he then took the opportunity of extending a lease of the Fal estuary, which he had been holding since the previous accession. Later on he also held a lease of the cellars beneath the great hall of the duchy in Lostwithiel, which, however, was to expire before 1391.5 In July 1376, after the prince’s death, Edward III reappointed Trenewith as receiver of the duchy of Cornwall, making him responsible for the transfer of the estates and revenues to the prince’s widow and her son, Richard, the heir to the throne. He was still receiver of the whole of the Cornish estates of the duchy at the time of his election to Parliament for Truro in January 1377, but from the following Easter onwards he acted as receiver only of that third of the estates which remained in the hands of Princess Joan as her dower portion. Whether he was kept on as her receiver until her death in 1385 is not clear. Trenewith is recorded on various occasions after the end of his receivership: in 1383 he acted as mainpernor at the Exchequer for the prior of St. Michael’s Mount; in 1388 he put in claims to certain of the properties forfeited by the chief justice, Sir Robert Tresilian†; and in 1389 he stood surety at the Exchequer for a lessee of other parts of the Tresilian estates. In February 1392 he himself was granted custody of lands in Cornwall which had belonged to John Durant, during the minority of the latter’s son John, together with his marriage, for which he paid £20. Consignments of tin were still being brought to Lostwithiel to be coined in his name in September that year, and there can be little doubt that it was indeed he who was returned for Truro to the Parliament which met the following January.6 Ralph is known to have died, however, before the end of 1393, for by December his widow, Joan Bodrugan, was married to John Trevarthian.
  2. Title: Copy of Bodrugan, Cornw. in The History of Parliament
    Author: Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 Available from Boydell and Brewer
    Publication: Name: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/bodrugan-william-i;
    Note: This history should be compared to the family information from "The Genealogie or Pedegree" a collateral line. The Cole genealogy states that Joan Bodrugan was the sole daughter and heir of Oto Bodrugan, son of Sir Oto Bodrugan. Joan had four husbands. 1st Sr. John Treuaignon, Knight ob s.p. (no issue) 2nd Ralph Trenoweth 3rd Sir Jo. Treuarthian 4th Robert Hull who survived her. Sir John Treuarthian Knight had issue Oto his son and heir died s. p. (no issue) & Vdona a daughter sister and heire to Oto, married to ___ Riskymer by whom he had issue Raph Reskymer sonn and heire. Joan's 2nd husband Ralph Trenoweth by whom she had issue before marriage, William Bodrugan as appears Rot. fines... William Bodrugan was the natural son of Joan by Ralph Trenoweth; he bore his mother's surname and for a marke of illegitimacon his grandfather Bodrugans Coate within a Border sable ingrayled, possessed himself of all his mothers Inheritances and had issue Sr. William Bodrugan Knight who had issue Sr Henry Bodrugan his sonne and heire attainted of Treason, and Margaret a daughter, who was married to John Antronithe. Last Sr William Bodrugan died 24 December. (End Pedigree info) BODRUGAN, William I, of Markwell in St. Erney, Cornw. Biography (NOTE: Keep in mind this biography mistakenly calls William's uncle William the son of Otto, but he is his grandson. William is the bastard son of Joan, the daughter and heir of Otto. William is not Joan's half-brother as stated below, she was his mother. William was the eldest son of Ralph and Joan, before their marriage.) The Bodrugans, ‘an ancient, eminent and opulent Cornish family’, had a long tradition of parliamentary service for the boroughs and shire of Cornwall. They were placed among the more substantial landowners of the county: by the mid 14th century their landed holdings had grown to include the manors of Restronguet, Tremodret, Tregrehan and Bodrugan, four hamlets, the borough of Looe, and six advowsons, and in 1362 as much as £52 was required as payment in relief fines after the death of this William Bodrugan’s uncle, Sir William Bodrugan†. But the integrity of the estate was jeopardized by the failure of the male line: although William’s grandfather, Sir Otto Bodrugan† (d.1331) had left three sons, none of them produced legitimate male children. Thus, in the 1380s possession of the Bodrugan estates was divided between Otto Bodrugan (William’s father) and Sir Richard Cergeaux*, whose first wife had been Otto’s niece, Elizabeth. Because of his illegitimacy William could not have expected to inherit much of the family property; yet by settlements made by his father in 1382 he did obtain the reversion of land at Markwell, Carburrow and elsewhere in Cornwall after the deaths of Cergeaux and John Beville*, and these arrangements were respected when Cergeaux died 11 years later. The settlement of the rest of the inheritance was governed by an entail made in 1386, whereby it was decided that following the deaths of Otto Bodrugan and Sir Richard Cergeaux the estates were first to pass to a group of feoffees to hold for William’s half-brother, Otto (who seems to have been an idiot and, in any case, died before 1389), and then to go to the children of his half-sister Joan, at that time the wife of Ralph Trenewith I*. William himself fared badly: his share was restricted to a reversionary interest in the manor of Tregrehan in St. Blazey. It was not until after the deaths of his father and Cergeaux (which occurred in 1389 and 1393 respectively) that he made any attempt to improve his lot. Then, joining forces with his nephew and namesake, William Bodrugan II* (born Trenewith), he challenged the distribution of the lands, first by disputing the claims of Joan Bodrugan’s third husband, John Trevarthian* (in 1394 the two William Bodrugans were required to provide securities before the justices at Launceston that they would not molest Trevarthian and his father), and then, in 1398, ‘with a great multitude of men of their covin’, by entering the manors of Tremodret and Trevelyn by force, in an attempt to displace Cergeaux’s widow and daughters. Although they were required to appear before the King’s Council, William Bodrugan ‘senior’ persisted in bringing an assize of novel disseisin regarding these manors against Sir John Cornwall (who had married Cergeaux’s widow), and the suit was still pending at Easter 1399. Bodrugan also started legal action against Cergeaux’s daughters, but when, in 1402, independent arbiters were called in, it was found that his case rested on a forged document, and he was made to seal a formal disclaimer to the manors of Tremodret and Trevelyn. In the same year he handed over the manor of Markwell to his nephew for a term of 40 years.1 Bodrugan’s parliamentary and public career is difficult to trace accurately. His appearance in Parliament for two boroughs is more an indication of the local influence of his father than of outstanding ability on his own part. In this connexion it is interesing to note that in the April Parliament of 1384 his father represented the county, and also that at the time of his return for Launceston four years later his father was still active in local affairs. It remains uncertain whether it was he or his nephew who was elected to Parliament by the shire in 1401 and who served as sheriff in 1402-3; but circumstantial evidence favours the older man. It was probably William senior, too, who in 1396 had appeared in Chancery on behalf of Thomas Cary, undertaking that the latter would return to the court certain charters relating to the estates forfeited by his father Sir John Cary†, the chief baron of the Exchequer impeached in the Merciless Parliament.2 The date of Bodrugan’s death has not been traced, but there is no doubt that he lived longer than his nephew and namesake (who died in 1416), for in the summer of 1420, described as William Bodrugan ‘bastard’, he made a personal appearance in the court of the Exchequer, having refused to pay relief fines long overdue for the manor of Tremodret. It had been thought that he was an executor of his father’s will, but he denied this and stated, furthermore, that he had inherited nothing whatsoever from him. Bodrugan informed the court that those now responsible for paying the fines were his nephew’s eldest son, Sir William Bodrugan,* and the descendants of Sir Richard Cergeaux. In the same year, 1420, he was sued by another kinsman, John Trenewith, for a debt of £40 which he had incurred in 1404.3
  3. Title: Trenoweth in Visitations of Cornwall 1620
    Author: The visitation of the county of Cornwall, in the year 1620 by Saint-George, Henry, Sir, 1581-1644; Lennard, Samson, d. 1633. cn; Vivian, John Lambrick, 1830-1896, ed; Drake, Henry Holman, joint ed; College of Arms (Great Britain) cn Publication date 1874
    Publication: Name: https://archive.org/details/visitationofcoun00sain/page/20/mode/1up?q=bodrugan;
  4. Title: The History of Parliament: TREVARTHIAN, John (c.1360-1402)
    Author: TREVARTHIAN, John (c.1360-1402), of Trevarthian in St. Hilary, Cornw. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 Available from Boydell and Brewer ConstituencyDates CORNWALL 1393 CORNWALL Sept. 1397 CORNWALL 1401 Ref Volumes: 1386-1421 Notes Variants: Trefarthean, Trevertian.
    Note: Family and Education b.c.1360, s. of John Trevarthian (d.1395), by Maud, da. of Sir Oliver Carminowe† of Boconnoc. m. (1) by 1379, Joan, da. and coh. of Ralph Petit alias Arundell of Carhayes in St. Michael Carhayes; (2) 1393, Joan (c.1359-1428), da. and h. of Otto Bodrugan† of Bodrugan, wid. of John Trevanion and Ralph Trenewith I*, 1s. 1da. Kntd. by Sept. 1400.1 Offices Held J.p. Cornw. 28 Feb. 1393-Jan. 1394. Commr. of inquiry, Cornw., Devon Mar. 1393 (concealments), Cornw. Nov. 1393 (illegal entry into John Hawley I’s* estates); array Dec. 1399; oyer and terminer, Devon Aug. 1401. Sheriff, Cornw. Mich. 1401-d. Biography The prominence given to the Trevarthian family in the public records in the last decades of the 14th century rests on the proclivity of at least two of its members towards lawless behaviour. The example of our MP’s father, an outlaw for the last ten years of his life, was followed in many respects by his son. Born about 1360 the latter was early involved in some kind of disturbance, and in 1376 he and his father (and a number of others) were outlawed. Sentence was suspended, however, when they were prepared to answer charges, but their arrest soon followed. In June 1379 John senior was a prisoner in the custody of the marshal, having been indicted for no less a crime than treason (although he clearly escaped the penalty). Later that year it was alleged that Philip Tregoz had lain in wait at night in order to kill the Trevarthians, and had ‘broken their houses, assaulted their servants, and taken away their doors, value 20s.’, but it is clear that the accused was acting in retaliation for wrongs done to him by the pair. In May 1380 both Trevarthians were to be brought to the Marshalsea ‘for certain misprisions against the King’, and in July orders were still out for their arrest for offences now said to have been committed in the King’s presence, as well as for ‘homicides and depredations’.2 Father and son then became involved in a feud with the Eyr family, in which their principal accomplices were John Penrose (afterwards j.KB), Alan St. Just and John Rensy. At some point in 1381 they entered the manor of ‘Trembetha’ which William, Lord Botreaux, had only recently recovered from them at the assizes, destroyed buildings and stole the possessions of Botreaux’s tenant, Richard Eyr. Not content with this, they then secured the indictment of Botreaux and Eyr on charges of treason and ‘sent people to watch for and kill’ the latter. Such were the intimidatory tactics of the Trevarthians that Lady Botreaux asserted that they were ‘so powerful in the country that none can have common law or right against them’. Then, in 1382, Trevarthian junior and others were accused of breaking the arrest of a ship at anchor in Mount’s Bay and also of attacking a Portuguese vessel which had surrendered to the King’s admiral of the west, which, with its cargoes of wine and other merchandise, they were still detaining in December that year. Orders were out for the Trevarthians’ arrest again in February and May 1383 for ‘certain treasons’ and, more specifically, ‘treasons at sea’; and John junior was indicted before the j.p.s for having, with his father’s counsel and abetment, broken into the priory of St. Michael’s Mount through a window and stolen valuable ornaments and casks of wine. When this last case eventually came before the King’s bench (in 1391) Trevarthian was to explain his earlier failure to appear in court to answer the charges as owing to his absence on royal service in Flanders, in the company of Henry Despenser, bishop of Norwich; and he produced a certificate which showed that, having been retained on 27 Apr. 1383, he had been abroad from 16 May following until 30 Oct.3 If this was true, it must have been during his absence that the Eyr feud flaired up again. In August of the same year he, his father, Penrose and St. Just were ordered to be arrested following their indictment for felony in Surrey (where John senior held land jure uxoris), and their refusal to surrender to justice after Richard Eyr had been found murdered. In March 1384 another royal commission was appointed to take them prisoner, only for the order to be suspended in July when they were allowed bail on the ground that they were not principals in the case. An impressive attempt was then made to settle the dispute: Alfonso, son of the count of Eu, and Sir Matthew Gourney were among those who arbitrated between them and William Eyr (Richard’s brother). According to the award then made, the Trevarthians were to pay their adversary 100 marks at St. Columb Major and procure a wardship for him, while the latter had to promise not to molest them in retaliation for assaulting him at St. Merryn. The whole settlement was confirmed by oaths taken upon holy relics in St. Merryn church. A second settlement involved some kind of a marriage pact (the terms of which have not survived). In April 1385 Trevarthian’s father received a royal pardon for all his many felonies, murders and trespasses, and a few months later, at the supplication of the earl of Oxford’s confessor, the younger John was similarly reprieved. Nevertheless, although both were pardoned outlawry, their estates remained confiscated. Nor was this the end of the Eyr affair, for shortly after Trevarthian’s friend, John Penrose, became a j.KB in 1391, his machinations against William Eyr brought him discredit and imprisonment in the Tower; and then in the following year, Trevarthian’s own arrest was again ordered, this time for armed assembly against the earl of Warwick’s men, of whom Eyr was one. The period of comparative calm between 1385 and 1392 had also been broken in 1389 when Trevarthian withheld two tuns of wine from the King’s agents, having illicitly taken them from a German ship moored at Falmouth. The courts were still proceeding against him on this account in 1397.4 The outlawry of Trevarthian’s father had complicated the succession to the family estates, but the younger John’s first marriage brought him other properties which may have compensated for the loss. By a settlement agreed in 1379 lands in 19 places were made over to him and his wife by his father-in-law, Ralph Arundell, and three years later his father gave him a rent charge of £20 a year from other holdings. He and his wife were also promised the manor of Carhayes and lands in Portholland and Pengilly after Arundell’s death. Those properties remaining in his father’s hands were, however, declared forfeit to the Crown and, from May 1384, were granted out on leases at the Exchequer for £14 or £20 a year (although their true annual value may have been as much as £35). In addition to this, Trevarthian senior was supposed to enjoy a corrody at St. Michael’s Mount priory, but in view of his son’s depredations, this was most likely withheld by the prior. The younger Trevarthian’s stepmother, Idonea, was granted by the Crown in 1389 the premises in London which had belonged to her former husband, Sir Simon Cuddingtont, and after Trevarthian senior’s death (on 25 Apr. 1395) she was also allowed to take possession of lands in Surrey (presumably also pertaining to the Cuddington estate) worth £5 6s.8d. Meanwhile the forefeited territory elsewhere had been awarded by Richard II in 1392 to Trevarthian junior. The grant referred to him as ‘King’s esquire’ and was made free of rent but on the understanding that he supported his father, a rather curious arrangement, possibly arising from some personal service he had done the King. (It may be speculated that his attacks on the property of the earl of Warwick had given Richard satisfaction.)5 Following the death of his father, Trevarthian apparently succeeded to his Cornish patrimony without further difficulty. Two years previously he had married the twice-widowed Joan Trenewith, heiress to the Bodrugan estates, and this had immediately involved him in a dispute over some of the property with her half-brother, William Bodrugan I* ‘the bastard’, and her son, William II* (born Trenewith). Subsequently, this lady was accused of trespass at Restronguet, a Bodrugan manor, by Sir John Herle* and John Colshull I*, and was imprisoned at Lostwithiel, only to be freed on bail in 1396 on receipt of information that she was ‘shortly to become a mother’. It was in that same year that Trevarthian shared with (Sir) John Arundell I* of Lanherne the estate of Thomas Carminowe and his daughter, comprising four-and-a-half manors, three advowsons, and other premises in Cornwall, which fell to him by maternal inheritance. In 1399 Trevarthian placed all his holdings in the hands of feoffees. These territorial interests must have made him a man of considerable substance in Cornwall, and one who, despite his turbulent youth, was an acceptable candidate for Parliament, especially in view of his new-found favour at the royal court. It is noticeable, however, that Richard II’s esquire and public servant ceased to act after 1397, and, in common with other prominent men of the West Country, returned to participation in local government only after the accession of Henry IV. Trevarthian represented Cornwall in 1401 both in Parliament and in a great council.
  5. Title: Bio of TRENEWITH, Ralph I (d.1393), of Trenowth in St. Probus, Cornw. in The History of Parliament
    Author: Online Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 Available from Boydell and Brewer
    Publication: Name: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/trenewith-ralph-i-1393;
    Note: TRENEWITH, Ralph I (d.1393), of Trenowth in St. Probus, Cornw. ConstituencyDates TRURO Jan. 1377 TRURO Oct. 1377 TRURO 1393 Family and Education s. of Walter Trenewith by his w. Elizabeth. m. (1) Elizabeth, da. of Richard Rushell, 3s. (1 prob. d.v.p.); (2) by 1380, Joan (c.1359-1428), da. and h. of Otto Bodrugan† (d.1389), of Bodrugan, wid. of John Trevanion, 3s. inc. William Bodrugan II*, 1da.1 Offices Held Controller of the stannaries, Cornw. bef. July 1367-Mich. 1368; receiver of the duchy of Cornwall in Cornw. Mich. 136-Easter 1377, for the princess of Wales bef. Easter 1377-c. Mich. 1379.2 Commr. of oyer and terminer, Cornw. July 1368; array May 1375, Apr. 1377, July 1377. J.p. Cornw. 26 Oct. 1369-c.1371, June 1373-4, July 1376-c.1379. Tax assessor, Cornw. May 1379. Justice of assize, Cornw. July 1380. Biography Ralph’s kinsmen, Michael Trenewith† and his son Ralph†, represented Cornwall in the Parliaments of 1338 and 1352, respectively. The career of the former affords a typical example of the malversation which flourished in the stannaries at that time: his lawful business operations included ownership of tin mines and loaning money; his criminal activities included smuggling, wrecking, fraud and coercion. But it would seem that Ralph, the MP for Truro, may be likened to Michael only in his more legitimate dealings: thus, from the 1360s onwards he traded in large quantities of tin which he took to be smelted and coined at Lostwithiel. (On one occasion, in 1385, he brought to be assayed a consignment weighing as much as 12,400 lbs.)3 Nor is there any evidence that he was unworthy of the trust placed in him as an officer of the duchy of Cornwall. Trenewith was a landowner of some substance. By a settlement made in 1359 he came into land on the manor of ‘Trenewith and Trewyshanec’ (probably in the parish of St. Probus), and six years later he was possessed of extensive properties near Looe. His holdings included land at Ventonwyn and Tresawle, situated near Truro, the borough which he represented in Parliament. Trenewith’s second marriage, which may have taken place before 1373, when he had dealings with his wife’s father, allied him to one of the most important families in Cornwall. By 1386 he had produced four children by this marriage who, under settlements made by their maternal grandfather, Otto Bodrugan, stood to inherit nearly all of the Bodrugan estates. Small wonder that the eventual heir, William renewith (Ralph’s only surviving son by this marriage), changed his name to Bodrugan.4 It was no doubt Trenewith’s interest in the tin trade which brought him into contact with the administration of the duchy of Cornwall. He was made responsible for the purchase and sale of tin to the use of Edward, the Black Prince, in about 1367, and became receiver of the prince’s estates in Cornwall two years later. As such in June 1376 he was commissioned to conduct an assession court, and he then took the opportunity of extending a lease of the Fal estuary, which he had been holding since the previous accession. Later on he also held a lease of the cellars beneath the great hall of the duchy in Lostwithiel, which, however, was to expire before 1391.5 In July 1376, after the prince’s death, Edward III reappointed Trenewith as receiver of the duchy of Cornwall, making him responsible for the transfer of the estates and revenues to the prince’s widow and her son, Richard, the heir to the throne. He was still receiver of the whole of the Cornish estates of the duchy at the time of his election to Parliament for Truro in January 1377, but from the following Easter onwards he acted as receiver only of that third of the estates which remained in the hands of Princess Joan as her dower portion. Whether he was kept on as her receiver until her death in 1385 is not clear. Trenewith is recorded on various occasions after the end of his receivership: in 1383 he acted as mainpernor at the Exchequer for the prior of St. Michael’s Mount; in 1388 he put in claims to certain of the properties forfeited by the chief justice, Sir Robert Tresilian†; and in 1389 he stood surety at the Exchequer for a lessee of other parts of the Tresilian estates. In February 1392 he himself was granted custody of lands in Cornwall which had belonged to John Durant, during the minority of the latter’s son John, together with his marriage, for which he paid £20. Consignments of tin were still being brought to Lostwithiel to be coined in his name in September that year, and there can be little doubt that it was indeed he who was returned for Truro to the Parliament which met the following January.6 Ralph is known to have died, however, before the end of 1393, for by December his widow, Joan Bodrugan, was married to John Trevarthian*.7 Ref Volumes: 1386-1421 Author: L. S. Woodger Notes 1.J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, i. 72; iii. 334; C.W. Boase, Collectanea Cornub. 1065; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 440. Most pedigrees confuse him with Ralph, s. of Michael Trenewith. 2.Duchy of Cornw. RO, receiver’s acct. 200; SC6/812/12, 14, 15; E101/263/15; CFR, viii. 355; CCR, 1374-7, pp. 407, 408, 421; E371/135 m.8. 3.J. Hatcher, Eng. Tin Production, 80; E101/263/19; C241/174/127. 4.CFR, xv. 228; CAD iv. A8698, 8900, 10076, 10421; Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1914), 612, 621, 631; ibid. (1950), 760. 5.Duchy of Cornw. RO, assession roll 475; E360/2/2, 3; SC6/819/2. 6.CFR, x. 13, 295; SC8/76/3769, 3770; CIMisc. v. 136; CPR, 1385-9, p. 545; 1391-6, p. 30; E101/263/21. 7.E40/14856. He has been distinguished from Ralph Trenewith of Grampound who, a servant of Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was engaged at the time of the Parliament of 1393 in a suit in the King’s bench against John Tregoose* and his father. He was later indicted for Tregoose’s murder and his property in Penryn, Grampound and ‘Tregoys’, valued at nearly £7 a year, was forfeited. He m. Milicent, wid. of John Nanscouell†. (KB27/527 m. 46, 582 m. 81; Cornw. Feet of Fines (1950), 849; E306/11/5; CPR, 1441-6, p. 21; CFR, xviii. 252-3).
  6. Title: Bio of William Bodrugan, son of Ralph Treneweth & Joan Bodrugan in "The History of Parliament"
    Author: Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 Available from Boydell and Brewer
    Publication: Name: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/bodrugan-william-ii-1416;
    Note: ConstituencyDates LISKEARD Nov. 1414 CORNWALL Mar. 1416 Family and Education 2nd s. of Ralph Trenewith I* by Joan (c.1359-1428), da. and h. of Otto Bodrugan† (d.1389) of Bodrugan. m. by 1398, Joan, 3s. inc. Sir William*. Offices Held Commr. of array, Cornw. Dec. 1399, Nov. 1405; inquiry Jan. 1412 (liability to contribute to a parliamentary subsidy). J.p. Cornw. Mar.-July 1410. Biography Both William and his elder brother Otto took their mother’s maiden name, which adds difficulty to an already complicated set of family relationships. They did so, no doubt, because on the basis of settlements made by their maternal grandfather in 1386 and 1389 they stood to inherit the bulk of the Bodrugan estates. Otto evidently died some time in the early 1390s, and it was William who, with the support of his mother’s illegitimate half-brother, William Bodrugan I*, sought to gain control of the whole inheritance after the death of a distant cousin’s husband, Sir Richard Cergeaux*, in 1393. First he quarrelled with his mother’s third husband, John Trevarthian*, over ownership of the manor of Bodrugan, their differences being only temporarily patched up by a notarial instrument dated 28 Dec. that year; and then in 1398, even though three years previously he had formally acknowledged the rights of Cergeaux’s widow and daughters to the manors of Tremodret and Trevelyn during his mother’s lifetime, he and William Bodrugan ‘the bastard’ entered these properties by force. For this last action they were summoned before the King’s Council.1 But clearly William was placed in a better position than his illegitimate namesake, and thereafter he kept out of the family confrontations. He seems to have been on good terms with his mother’s fourth husband, Robert Hill of Shilston, j.c.p., for in June 1407 he obtained a royal licence to surrender his estate in lands at ‘Trewethan’ to a chantry at the altar known as ‘Bodrigannesauter’ in the collegiate church at Glasney in Penryn, when his mother and Hill were providing for services to be held there. In the following year his mother made over to him the manors of Restronguet, Bodrugan, Tregrehan, Trewarrick, Trethack and Trethym; and in 1412, by licence of Bishop Stafford of Exeter, he and his wife were permitted to have their own oratory at Restronguet. Bodrugan’s returns to Parliament first for Liskeard and then for the shire reflect his increasing importance as his share of the family estates expanded. In the Michaelmas term of 1415 he was required by the Exchequer to pay relief fines of £10 for Restronguet, only to be then discharged on production of a general pardon dated 1 Nov. that year.2 Bodrugan’s career is otherwise somewhat confused with that of his uncle of the same name. But after 1398 he was generally known as William Bodrugan ‘esquire’, and this designation helps to distinguish between them. In 1398 the younger man took out a pardon of outlawry following his failure to answer a plea of debt brought by two London citizens (an armourer and a draper); and it was he who, four years later, petitioned the Crown about unfair dealings by the mayor and burgesses of Plymouth. He then claimed that he and his fellows had recently taken at sea, ‘from certain men of Spain armed and arrayed against them in manner of war’, 13 bales of cloth and other goods, but that the men of Plymouth had subsequently seized the merchandise for themselves. The King’s Council, having first ordered that the goods be shown to Sir William Lambourne* before any decision was taken as to ownership, summoned Bodrugan and the rest to appear before them to answer touching complaints of piracy. It was probably this William Bodrugan who in 1407 attended the shire elections for Cornwall held at Grampound, and who three years later served, albeit only briefly, as a j.p. It seems likely also that in 1415 he made an award in a quarrel between his half-brother, Otto Trevarthian, and members of the Petit family.3 Bodrugan died shortly before 8 July 1416, and soon after the dissolution of the Parliament in which he had represented Cornwall. After his death the dispute with Sir Richard Cergeaux’s daughters over part of the Bodrugan estates was taken up by his stepfather, Justice Hill, and his own share of the property returned to the possession of his mother, probably because his eldest son, (Sir) William, was still under age.4 Ref Volumes: 1386-1421 Author: L. S. Woodger
  7. Title: Ralph Trenouth on WikiTree
    Author: WikiTree contributors, "Ralph Trenouth", WikiTree, http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Trenouth-21 (accessed 26 April 2022)
    Publication: Name: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Trenouth-21;
  8. Title: Pedigree Charts in "The Genealogie or Pedegree" by Sir William Segar, Garter
    Author: Book: Coles Of Devon, 1867 (25.html) by James Edwin-Cole Source 7:www Genealogy or pedegree of the .... Sir William Cole... written in 1630 by Segar, William, Sir, -1633
    Publication: Name: http://ephotocaption.com/a/25/1391150.pdf;
    Note: There are 33 pages of Charts of the Cole Family and the collateral lines drawn from the original Cole Pedigree dated 1585. This is copied from the original Roll, in the possession of the Right Honourable the Earl of Enniskillen. This information was compiled by Sir William Segar, Garter in 1630, referencing the family of Thomas Cole who compiled the Escheats. William Segar, Garter was the Principall King of Armes. Wikipedia: Sir William Segar (c. 1554–1633) was a portrait painter and officer of arms to the court of Elizabeth I of England; he became Garter King of Arms under James I. He had the responsibility of granting coats of arms to noble families. THE PEDIGREE AS IT RELATES TO THE BODRUGAN FAMILY CONTAINS ERRORS. Firstly, it incorrectly shows that Henry Bodrugan the son of Otto, and his wife Isabelle Whalesborough, had 3 sons: William, Otto & Nicholas. This is wrong. the 3 sons were in fact his brothers. Henry died, aged 20, leaving no issue, his next heir being his brother William. This is evident from Henry's IPM. Secondly, the pedigree conflates William the bastard son of Otto Bodrugan with William Bodrugan the son of Ralph Treneweth. This is an unreliable source in so far at it relates to the Bodrugan family.
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