Sir John Tregonwell (died 1565) was a Cornish jurist, a principal agent of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1524 to 1536. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Sir John Tregonwell (died 1565) was a Cornish jurist, a principal agent of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1524 to 1536. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
He was born in Cornwall, the second son of his family: he also had a sister named Alice, who married William Southcott of Chudleigh, Devon, and was the mother of the jurist John Southcote (born c. 1510). [6] Tregonwell was educated at Oxford, initially at Broadgates Hall. He obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law on 30 June 1516, and Doctor of Civil Law on 23 June 1522. [7] Before leaving Oxford he became principal of Vine Hall. [8] A record exists that he was constituted a Judge in the Admiralty Courts in the time of Lord High Admiral William Fitzwilliam, giving a date of about 1524. [9]
In December 1527 Tregonwell, LL.D., was named to a commission to inquire into and punish treasons, murders and piracies at sea, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, a commission renewed in January 1530/31. [10] In 1528 as juris civilis doctor and judex curie Admirallitatis he issued a precept for an arrest as from the Admiralty Court. [11] In 1528-1529 he assisted Rowland Lee in the visitation of Thetford Priory, [12] and in a letter of March 1529 the Abbot of Briwerne thanked Thomas Cromwell for the trouble taken on his behalf, as Dr Tregonwell and John Wadham had informed him. In May and June 1532 he and Dr William Knight (Archdeacon of Richmond) were engaged in diplomatic negotiations in the Netherlands, settling disputes between the Flemish merchants and the English Merchant Adventurers. After various threats to dissolve the diet, [13] the Notarial instrument was signed at Dunkirk in their presence on 30 May. [14] On 11 July 1532, in a consultation concerning sea business, he appears as "Master John Tregonwell, Doctor of Laws, Official commissary, or Judge, of the High Court of Admiralty", with Thomas Bagard, Doctor of Laws, as his Surrogate in that court. [15] He became principal judge or commissary-general, and acted in various Admiralty commissions. [16]
He was introduced to the Privy Council as early as October 1532; [17] and with the appointment of Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury in March 1533, Tregonwell rapidly became a useful figure in affairs of state. With Thomas Bedyll, John Cockes and Richard Gwent, he was one of the four witnesses summoned by Cranmer in March 1533 to hear his private protestation on the eve of his Consecration. [18] [19] [20] At the Convocation of April 1533, Dr Tregonwell appeared as proctor for the King in the matter of the royal divorce, to require that their decisions concerning two questions should be brought into written form and published. [21] [22] On 8 May Cranmer held court in the Lady Chapel of Dunstable Priory, with the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester and with several doctors of law, Dr Tregonwell among them, as counsellors in the law for the King's part. Lady Katherine was called but did not appear, and was held to be contumacious: examination of the evidence and witnesses proceeded. [23] [24] On 23 May at Dunstable, Cranmer declared the marriage dissolved, and Tregonwell's short message went at once to Cromwell at Westminster. [25] [26] He was soon afterwards granted an annuity of £40 for life. [27]
With Chancellor Audeley, Secretary Cromwell, Almoner Fox and Richard Gwent, he signed the two treaties of peace of 1534 with Scotland on behalf of King Henry. [28] [29] He also took part in the proceedings against the London Carthusians, [30] against Sir Thomas More, [31] [32] and against Anne Boleyn. [33] He became a Master in Chancery by 1536, and was appointed to receive petitions in the Lords in parliaments commencing in 1536, and in that year held a commission to receive and examine rolls.
Tregonwell's great business was, however, his agency in the dissolution of the monasteries. His main part lay in taking surrenders. His correspondence, of which there is less than of some of the other visitors, gives a more favourable impression of him than of Legh or Layton, and he adopts a firmer tone in writing to Cromwell. [34] He visited Oxford University in 1535; [35] otherwise his work lay mainly in the south and west of England. [36] [37] [38] With Dr Layton, Dr Legh and Dr Petre he was active in the interrogations of prisoners taken in the Pilgrimage of Grace, [39] including George Lumley [40] and Nicholas Tempest, [41] and he was important enough for Cromwell to talk about him as a possible Master of the Rolls. [42] He became a master in chancery in 1539, was chancellor of Wells Cathedral from 1541 to January 1543, a commissioner in chancery in 1544, and a commissioner of the great seal in 1550.
In Queen Mary's accession, in 1553, she appointed judges led by Tregonwell, with William Roper, David Pole, Anthony Draycot and others, to examine the claim of Edmund Bonner that his deprivation (under Edward VI) as Bishop of London had been invalid. In the reversal of religious policy, the reinstatement of the deprived Catholic bishops was for Mary an important component in her reform. Dr Tregonwell himself pronounced the definitive sentence in Bonner's favour, resulting in his restitution, on 5 September 1553, thereby overturning the former sentence of Cranmer, and laying the fault of the injustice upon the distinguished judges who had approved it. [43] Tregonwell was knighted on 2 October 1553.
He was Member of Parliament for Scarborough in the parliament of October 1553, and, though he held a prebend, there was no objection to his return, doubtless because he was a layman. Alexander Nowell was ejected from parliament, and Tregonwell was one of the committee which sat to consider his case. In 1555 he was a commissioner on imprisoned preachers.
Sir John Tregonwell died on 8 or 13 January 1564/65 at Milton Abbas, Dorset (for which, after the Dissolution, he paid £1,000). His will was proved on 30 May 1565. [44]
He was buried, and his monument was raised, in the presbytery north of the sanctuary (now forming the north aisle) in the magnificent surroundings of Milton Abbey church. The monument is an altar tomb of Purbeck marble, the chest, with quatrefoil panels enclosing plain shields, supported on a moulded plinth. Over this, supported forward on two barley-twist columns which rise into octagonal corner turrets, is a stone canopy with a frieze of quatrefoils with pierced foliate cresting above. The underside of the canopy is carved with ornamental tracery, with two pendants (as from a pendant vault) from which the finials are missing. [4] [45]
The wall panel at the back of the tomb has a complete group of six latten insets. Sir John, who has a full pointed beard, appears centrally (turning three-quarters to his right) in armour and tabard, kneeling at a prayer desk with an open book lying on an armorial cloth: tabard and cloth bear the arms of Tregonwell. He wears a neck chain, and his helm and gauntlets are placed in front of the desk. From his mouth proceeds a prayer scroll or label inscribed "Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce D'ni nostri Jesu Christi" (We ought rather to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ) in black letter. Below this scene is a rectangular plate with this black-letter inscription:
"Here lyeth buried Syr John Tregonwell knyghte doctor of the Cyvill Lawes, & one of the maisters of the Chauncerye who died the xiiith day of Januarye in the yere . of our Lorde . 1565 . of whose soule God have m[er]cy." [4] [45]
The remainder of the group consists of three armorial plates, one raised above and a little to Sir John's right (away from which his prayer scroll ascends, as if in repudiation of worldly honours), and two shield-shaped escutcheons, one to Sir John's left and one to his right. The first, above, represents the arms of Tregonwell on a shield with the crested helm in mantling above (bracketed tinctures not shown on the brass):
The two shield-shaped plates are heraldic impalements representing Sir John's two marriages. The first marriage (to his left side), to an heiress named Newce, [47] is the impalement of Tregonwell with Newce or Newes of Oxford:
The second marriage (to his right side), to Elizabeth Kelloway, is the impalement of Tregonwell with (in the sinister pale) a quartering for Kelloway, embodying the Kelloway connection with the former lords of Rockbourne, Hampshire: [50]
A long elegiac poem for Tregonwell was published by George Turbervile in his Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnetts of 1567. [55]
There has been much confusion about Tregonwell's wives. [56] [57]
Tregonwell married first an heiress Newce, [47] of Oxfordshire [58] [48] by whom he had issue:
Sir John's second wife was Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir John Kellaway (died 1547) of Rockbourne, Hampshire, [50] and his wife Anne (daughter of Henry) Strangways. [62] At her marriage to Tregonwell, which occurred at Puddletown on 15 June 1549, Elizabeth was the widow of Robert Martyn (died 1548) [63] [64] of Athelhampton, Dorset, [65] by whom she had six sons and three daughters. (The terms of her first, then forthcoming, marriage to Robert are outlined by Christopher Martyn of Puddletown in his will of 1525). [66] There were no children of her second marriage.
Following John Tregonwell's death, there was a dispute between Dame Elizabeth Tregonwell (née Kellaway) and her step-grandson John Tregonwell (son of Elizabeth Newce's son Thomas). [67] This involved a fight over a barn, which left one of her step-grandson's men dead and another pinned to the wall by a sheaf of arrows. [68] Dame Elizabeth was also found to be keeping under her protection a young Roman Catholic called Thomas Sherwood. Her own son by her first marriage, George Martin, gave Sherwood up to the authorities. This led to Sherwood's execution in 1579 and Elizabeth Tregonwell's examination for recusancy in 1580. [69] [70] She got off lightly, being required only to pay maintenance on Milton Abbey Church. [68] Elizabeth's recusancy charges must have stood in stark contrast to her husband's reputation as a leading figure in implementing and profiting from the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Dame Elizabeth Tregonwell, Sir John's widow, made her will on 8 September 1576 and it was proved on 15 May 1584: she states in as many words that Robert Martyn had been her first husband. [64]
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and his efforts to have his first marriage annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope.
Thomas Cromwell, briefly Earl of Essex, was an English statesman and lawyer who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charges for the execution.
Henry VIII is a collaborative history play, written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, based on the life of Henry VIII. An alternative title, All Is True, is recorded in contemporary documents, with the title Henry VIII not appearing until the play's publication in the First Folio of 1623. Stylistic evidence indicates that individual scenes were written by either Shakespeare or his collaborator and successor, John Fletcher. It is also somewhat characteristic of the late romances in its structure. It is noted for having more stage directions than any of Shakespeare's other plays.
John Stokesley was an English clergyman who was Bishop of London during the reign of Henry VIII.
Elizabeth Seymour was a younger daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Elizabeth and her sister Jane served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery, and subsequently executed. On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Jane died 24 October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a healthy son, Edward VI.
In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six queen consorts of King Henry VIII of England between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, Henry had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. However, he was never granted an annulment by the Pope, as he desired, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Along with his six wives, Henry took several mistresses.
John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester, styled The Honourable John Paulet between 1539 and 1550, Lord St John between 1550 and 1551 and Earl of Wiltshire between 1551 and 1555, was an English peer. He was the eldest son of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester and Elizabeth Capel.
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury, was created Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1536.
Thomas Bedyll (died 1537) was a divine and royal servant. He was royal chaplain and clerk of the Privy Council of Henry VIII, assisting him with the separation from Rome.
Dr Richard Gwent was a senior ecclesiastical jurist, pluralist cleric and administrator through the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Of south Welsh origins, as a Doctor of both laws in the University of Oxford he rose swiftly to become Dean of the Arches and Archdeacon of London and of Brecon, and later of Huntingdon. He became an important figure in the operations of Thomas Cromwell, was a witness to Thomas Cranmer's private protestation on becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, and was Cranmer's Commissary and legal draftsman. He was an advocate on behalf of Katherine of Aragon in the proceedings against her, and helped to deliver the decree of annulment against Anne of Cleves.
Sir Richard Reade (1511–1576) was an English-born judge in sixteenth-century Ireland, who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Thomas Martin (1521-1593), of Winterbourne St. Martin, Dorset; Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire, and London, was an English lawyer, controversialist and politician. He was prominent in the trial of Thomas Cranmer.
Sir Nicholas Wadham was an English landowner, courtier, politician, and civil and military administrator from Somerset. His inherited landholdings over three counties included Merryfield in Ilton in Somerset, Catherston Leweston in Dorset, and Edge in Branscombe in Devon.
Anthony Hussey, Esquire, was an English merchant and lawyer who was President Judge of the High Court of Admiralty under Henry VIII, before becoming Principal Registrar to the Archbishops of Canterbury from early in the term of Archbishop Cranmer, through the restored Catholic primacy of Cardinal Pole, and into the first months of Archbishop Parker's incumbency, taking a formal part in the latter's consecration. The official registers of these leading figures of the English Reformation period were compiled by him. While sustaining this role, with that of Proctor of the Court of the Arches and other related ecclesiastical offices as a Notary public, he acted abroad as agent and factor for Nicholas Wotton.
Sir Anthony Ughtred or Oughtred, Knight banneret was an English soldier and military administrator during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Ughtred fought in Ireland, the Anglo Scottish border and both on land and at sea in France. He served with distinction as captain of Berwick, marshal of Tournai and governor of Jersey. In 1530, he married Elizabeth Seymour, sister to Jane, future third wife to Henry VIII.
Sir James Leyburn, also Laybourne, Labourn, etc., was a senior representative of one of the powerful families within the Barony of Kendal. He was at different times a Justice of the Peace for Westmorland, Escheator for Cumberland and Westmorland, and Commissioner for the survey of the monasteries of Lancashire. He was caught up in the troubles at Kendal during the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-1537). As an assistant to Sir Thomas Wharton, Deputy Warden of the West March, he took an important part in the Battle of Solway Moss (1542). He was one of the two MPs for Westmorland in 1542 and 1545.
Edward Lewknor was the representative of a branch of a prominent Sussex family, in an armigerous line descending in the distaff side from the Camoys barony. Having attained standing as a member of parliament and by a position of service in the royal household, his career was ended abruptly by his involvement in Henry Dudley's conspiracy against Queen Mary I, and his consequent attainder. His children were restored in blood by Queen Elizabeth I.
Geoffrey Chamber was a legal advocate, an associate and agent of Thomas Cromwell's, and was Surveyor and Receiver-General to the Court of Augmentations at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He was connected with the discovery of the mechanical contrivances in the Rood of Grace at Boxley Abbey.
John Strode, the son of Robert Strode of Parnham, Dorset and Elizabeth Hody, was elected MP for Dorset in 1572 and was Sheriff of Dorset from 1572 to 1573.
Sir Edward Echyngham, , of Barsham and Ipswich in Suffolk, was a commander on land and at sea, briefly Constable of Limerick Castle, and Collector of Customs at Ipswich. He is remembered as the author of a letter to Cardinal Wolsey describing the death of Lord Admiral Howard at Brest in 1513. From 1485 the presence of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk was felt directly along the Barsham reach of the River Waveney from their possession of Bungay Castle.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Tregonwell, John". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
