CORYTON, William (by 1531-66 or later), of Liskeard, Cornw.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1531, 7th s. of Peter Coryton of West Newton in St. Mellion by Jane, da. and h. of John Tregasow of St. Erme. m. Bridget, da. of one Burnell, 2s. 1da.1

Offices Held

Mayor, Liskeard 1554-5, 1557-8.2

Biography

In a will dated 7 July 1545 Peter Coryton granted certain lands in Cornwall to Walter Coode, John Trevelyan, and Robert Becket, who were to hold them in trust for 21 years after his death and to pay £100 out of the issues of these lands to his youngest son William, at that time an apprentice in London: the arrangement was that the money was to be given to him within a year of being released from his apprenticeship. After his father’s death in 1551 William Coryton discovered that the three men had allowed his eldest brother to appropriate the lands in their trust, and in order to get his legacy he was forced to start an action in Chancery, the outcome of which is unknown.3

During his second mayoralty Coryton was chosen to sit for his borough in the last Parliament of Mary’s reign. Nothing has come to light about his part in the House, but during the second session John Corbet, who had been arrested for debt, received a writ of privilege on 10 Nov. 1558 as a servant of ‘William Corryngton, gentleman, burgess for Liskeard’. Early in Elizabeth’s reign Coryton was involved in a dispute with the burgesses of Bodmin over the shops kept by his fellow-townsmen in Bodmin, and in 1563 he was chosen to represent Liskeard in the final settlement. The last certain glimpse of him comes three years later, when he leased a house in Market Street, Liskeard. He was possibly the William Coryton of Quethiock, some four miles east of Liskeard, whose (lost) will was proved in 1593, but this was probably a kinsman.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from apprenticeship. Vis. Cornw. ed. Vivian, 101; PCC 23 Powell; J. Polsue, Paroch. Hist. Cornw., ii. 346.
  • 2. J. Allen, Liskeard, 257, 292.
  • 3. PCC 23 Powell; C1/1338/44-48; E. H. W. Dunkin, Mon. Brasses, Cornw. 33.
  • 4. Allen, 206, 274, 292; CJ, i. 51; Bodmin Reg. ed. Wallis, 321; Cornw. Wills 1569-1699 (Index Lib. lvi), 72.