COUCHE, Ralph II (1535-88 or later), of Glasney, nr. Penryn, 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

1558

Family and Education

b. Apr. 1535, 1st s. of Ralph Couche I of Glasney by Thomasin, da. of William Gerveys of Bonallack in Constantine. m. Jane, da. and coh. of Richard Trengove alias Nance of Nance in Illogan, s.p.1

Offices Held

Biography

Ralph Couche was 22 years old when he took his seat in the last Parliament of Mary’s reign. He owed his election at Penryn to his father, a leading figure in the borough, who on this occasion acted as its returning officer. In the following year, when a seat at Penryn was evidently not available, he was returned for another Cornish borough. Couche figured in the feud between his father and the Killigrews, but on his father’s death he did not re-assert the family’s claims. He seems to have spent the remainder of his life at Penryn and Glasney, where he made his will on 18 Jan. 1588. He left the site of Glasney college to his mother (who had earlier conveyed it to him for 250 marks), and after her in reversion successively to his nephew John Couche and his cousin Ralph Couche of Bodmin. The Ralph Couche of Glasney who in 1602 brought an action in the court of requests and who six years later released lands in Penryn to James Mathew was probably his cousin and eventual heir.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: J. J. Goring

Notes

  • 1. Aged ‘21 in April last’ in May 1556, City of London RO, Guildhall, jnl. 16, f. 387v. Vis. Cornw. ed. Vivian, 76; C. G. Henderson, Constantine, 127; Req.2/34/88; C1/1344/49; Truro mus. HB1/11.
  • 2. C219/25/26; Truro mus. HB1/11, 24; Req.2/164/35.