ALLET, Richard, of Allet in Kenwyn, 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

Constituency

Dates

1406

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Allet is not known to have held property in either of the boroughs he represented in Parliament. In the first half of the 14th century his family had been lords of the manor of Allet, near Truro, and although the manor had since then come into the possession of the family of Hamely, Allet himself still retained an interest in the place. There was a connexion by marriage between the old and new lords of the manor, and in 1387 Osbert Hamely (brother of Sir John*) granted Allet an annual rent of as much as £40 arising from the manor and other Cornish properties, including land on St. Agnes Island in the Scillies. On two occasions in the following decade Allet acted as attorney for the Hamelys at the assizes held at Launceston, and in 1403 Osbert gave him all his property on St. Agnes and at ‘Tregeuran’ and ‘Kylmensekmor’ to hold for six years free of rent. However, amicable relations ceased in 1405, when Arthur Hamely acquired an interest in the estate and with the assistance of Ralph Trenewith of Padstow, one of the j.p.s, disseised Allet of it. At the same time Hamely’s friend John Polmorva† brought actions against Allet in the King’s bench, alleging that he had stolen a suit of armour and a book of statutes, among other goods valued altogether at £100.1

In 1392 Allet had been a defendant in one of several suits brought at the assizes by John Hawley I* of Dartmouth, following the latter’s purchase from the Crown of the forfeited estates of Sir Robert Tresilian†. Hawley had encountered strong opposition to his attempts to take possession of the property and, after failing to obtain full satisfaction in the local courts, he started proceedings in Chancery, alleging among other things that Allet had disseised him of land worth 20 marks a year. In 1408, two years after his first return to Parliament, Allet stood surety at the Exchequer for John Chenduyt*, a claimant to the manor of Bodannan, which was also said to have once been a part of the Tresilian estate. At the elections to the Parliament of 1410 he acted as mainpernor for one of the knights elect for Cornwall, Sir Ralph Botreaux. The date of his death has not been traced, but it had occurred by 1430, for in that year Martin Archdeacon, a canon of Exeter, mentioned him in a provision in his will which allowed for 600 masses to be celebrated for the souls of the testator’s kinsmen and friends.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. Reg. Black Prince, ii. 88, 167; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, ii. 542-3; CAD, i. C1272; ii. C2114, 2892; JUST 1/1502 mm. 214d, 217d, 1519 m. 89d; C1/68/192, 69/361; KB27/588 m. 55.
  • 2. JUST 1/1502 m. 213; C1/7/296; CFR, xiii. 109; C219/10/5; Reg. Chichele, ii. 477.