ARUNDELL, John (1576-1654), of Trerice, in Newlyn, Cornw.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 22 Nov. 1576, 1st s. of John Arundell of Trerice by his 2nd w. Gertrude, da. of Sir Robert Denys of Holcombe Burnell, Devon. educ. M. Temple 1594. m. Mary, da. of George Carey of Clovelly, Devon, 5s. 1da. suc. fa. 1580.

Offices Held

J.p. Cornw. from 1599, Sheriff 1607-8; gov. Pendennis castle c.1643-6.

Biography

This branch of the Arundell family had been established at Trerice since the reign of Edward III. Arundell himself was not quite four years old when he succeeded his father and, on coming of age, had some difficulty in securing his rights of inheritance. Writing to Lord Burghley in June 1598 he complained that his suit in the court of wards had ‘been always put off by one hard shift or another of the adverse party’.1

In the meantime he had studied at the Middle Temple, where he was bound with his brothers-in-law, Richard Carew and Henry Somaster. In September 1597 he was returned to Parliament for Mitchell, a borough controlled by the other branch of the Arundell family. Towards the end of the century he began to play a full part in county affairs, and sat as knight of the shire in Elizabeth’s last Parliament, in which capacity he could have served on the main business committee (3 Nov.) and the monopolies committee (23 Nov.).

His extensive property included more than ten manors in Cornwall alone, and he was related to nearly all the leading families of the county. His brother-in-law, Richard Carew, the antiquary, wrote of him in his Survey of Cornwall, ‘even from his young years [he] began where his father left, and with so temperate a course treadeth just in his footsteps, that he inheriteth as well his love as his living’. During the Stuart period he increased his standing in the county, and his support for the King during the civil war earned him the nickname of ‘Jack for the King’.2

He died in 1654.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes

  • 1. DNB ; Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 12, 14; PCC 142 Berkeley; Carew’s Surv. Cornw. ed. Halliday, 19-20; APC , xxviii. 18, 102; Wards 9/138/548; HMC Hatfield , viii. 239.
  • 2. D’Ewes, 624, 649; W. T. Lawrence, Parl. Rep. Cornw. 202; APC , xxx. 250; xxxii. 278; Wards 9/138/548; Halliday, 222; DNB .