English soldier, politician and landowner
Sir John Cornwall (c.1366–1414) was an English soldier, politician and landowner, who fought in the Hundred Years' War and against the Glyndŵr Rising. He had considerable prestige, claiming royal descent. As he was part of the Lancastrian affinity, the retainers of John of Gaunt, he received considerable royal favour under Henry IV. He represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. However, he regularly attracted accusations of violence, intimidation and legal chicanery. Towards the end of his life he fell into disfavour and he died while awaiting trial in connection with a murder.
Background.
John Cornwall was the son of Brian de Cornwall (died 1391) of Kinlet, Shropshire, second son of Edmund de Cornwall of Thonock, Lincolnshire, and Maud Le Strange, daughter of Fulk, 1st Baron Strange of Blackmere.
Edmund de Cornwall, John's grandfather, was the eldest son of Sir Richard of Cornwall, an illegitimate son of Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, a very wealthy brother of Henry III who was also for a time King of the Romans. Hence the entire Cornwall line could justly claim descent from King John. Before the Cornwalls, their chief manor of Kinlet had belonged to Brian Brampton, who died late in 1294. His inquisition post mortem revealed a considerable portfolio of estates in the counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire in the Welsh Marches. Edmund took custody of the Brampton estates during the minority of Brian de Brampton's daughters and heiresses, Margaret and Elizabeth, under a grant made by Edward I on 2 January 1305, which called him the "king's yeoman and kinsman". However, it seems the grant was only in confirmation, as Cornwall had levied scutage on the Brampton estates in 1300. He acquired Kinlet by marrying Elizabeth, the younger of the two heiresses: she was born on 16 December 1294, probably after her father's death. This Brampton inheritance included other estates, like Ashton in Herefordshire and Idbury in Oxfordshire. Edmund served his cousin the king in the First War of Scottish Independence, perhaps with some distinction and cost to himself, as the fact is mentioned in a royal licence to fell and sell 100 oaks in the Wychwood. After his death in 1354, his estates passed initially to his eldest son, also called Edmund, said variously to be 30 or 40 or more years of age, whose only son predeceased him "sine prole".
Brian, as second son, had been recorded as tenant of Idbury, along with Robert Harley, the husband of his aunt Margaret Brampton, as early as 1346. He was granted a collection of Shropshire estates by his mother, and ultimately inherited also those in Herefordshire and Oxfordshire, but not Thonock. He had already proved himself in battle, going to France in 1346 in the retinue of John, 2nd Baron Strange of Blackmere, under the overall command of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel. There he fought in the Battle of Crécy and the Siege of Calais, winning valuable exemptions from tax and future services. At some point he married John Le Strange's sister, Maud, and John was their eldest surviving son, born around 1366. John had three brothers, Henry, Brian and Thomas, who all died without issue. He also had a sister, Isabel. In 1383 she married John Blount of Sodington, who twice served as MP for Worcestershire.
Landowner.
Brian Cornwall died in 1391. The date is variously given as 5 May, and 18 August: the inquisition held at Standlake, Oxfordshire, in early September recorded it as the Friday after the Assumption and stated that John, his heir, was 24 and more years of age – the best evidence for his birth date. It noted that his estates in the county included the manor of Asthall-under-Wychwood, which was held in chief: this was a property that went back to Richard of Cornwall himself, who was granted it in 1227 by his brother, Henry III. There was also Idbury, held of the Earl of March. The inquisition taken at Bridgnorth the following day recorded the manor of Kinlet, also held of the Earl of March, as worth nothing beyond outgoings. It also listed various pieces of land in the vicinity of Kinlet, including a small estate at Catsley. At Leominster an inquisition recorded Brian's moiety of Ashton as held in joint feoffment with his wife Maud, who had survived him. The succession posed few legal issues and on 25 September the escheators were ordered to hand over to John Cornwall all his lands held in chief.
Three years earlier, John had agreed to allow his mother two thirds of Ashton for her lifetime, which was over and above her dower. Maud had omitted to present her proofs of ownership at Idbury and the inquest had left open the question of the terms on which it was held. In November the king, Richard II, gave her extra time to complete the formalities, promising not to penalise the escheator for the resulting deficient accounts. As Ashton was not held in chief but of the Earl of March, the king gave orders on 8 February 1392 to have it released to Maud without
delay. The whole question of Maud's dower now appeared settled, with the escheator of Oxfordshire ordered to take her oath and release the property on 30 April, and his counterpart in Shropshire simply to assign the dower. However, further delays did actually occur, perhaps as a result of the handover to a new escheator in Oxfordshire, who was ordered to meddle no further with the Idbury estate in May 1393. In addition to the lands revealed by the inquisitions, John Cornwall inherited small estates close to the Welsh border, including a moiety of Worthen, which had been listed among Edmund Cornwall's holdings and took in an area of the Forest of Caus.
Although he inherited several estates, John Cornwall was not left with great wealth. His mother took the proceeds of well over a third of the estates while she lived. Moreover, Kinlet, the Shropshire seat seems to have been especially unprofitable, producing no surplus. Cornwall did not even acquire the advowson of Kinlet church with the lordship: it was held and exercised by the abbot and convent of Wigmore Abbey. The dire situation here was not unusual, as 14th century had been a time of great suffering in the countryside, with a major agrarian crisis in 1315-22 and the onset of the Black Death in 1349. In the worst times, Shropshire inquisitions declared estates worthless or nearly so, and landowners sometimes struggle to meet even modest rents, mainly because it was hard to find tenants or labour in the depopulated countryside, although this placed the survivors in an advantageous bargaining position. Landlords tended to suffer from the falling value of their estates until at least the 1370s but there was then an upturn and the last decades of the century were a time of growing, if modest, prosperity.
Cornwall also acquired control of the manor of Eastham, Worcestershire by marriage to Joan Wasteneys or Westneys. Before Joan's father, Sir William Wasteneys there had been a fairly rapid succession of manorial lords at Eastham, where the advowson belonged to the lord of the manor, allowing a succession to be traced through the details of presentations to the rectory in the episcopal registers. In June 1349, just after the onset of the Black Death, it was Thomas de Doverdale who presented to the church but in May 1357 it was Joan de Carru. In 1361, a peak plague year, John de la More and John Fyman, chaplain, were described as "lords of Eastham" when presenting William de la More to the church. Walter Hewet, grandfather of Cornwall's wife, appears in 1368, alongside the priest William de la More, among a group who obtained a licence to enlarge their park at Eastham by 300 acres. By 1381 Sir William Wasteneys was in charge, approving an exchange of clergy. However, another exchange took place on 28 October 1395. and this time the patron was not Sir William, but his wife Dame Alice. Not until January 1405 does Sir John Cornwall appear as the patron, jointly with his son-in-law William Lichfield and chaplain John Leye. It seems that he had to wait some time before effective control at Eastham. Moreover, the value of the manor was not high, given as just 20 marks in a Chancery inquisition of 1431 after the death of Roger Corbet, who married Cornwall's granddaughter. During Cornwall's time Eastham was held of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick.
Political and military career.
Active service and royal favour.
Cornwall formally entered the Lancastrian affinity on 12 March 1395 at in Bordeaux through an indenture with John of Gaunt. This was at a time of truce in the Hundred Years' War, with Richard II's effective power confined to very small enclaves along the west coast of France. Cornwall was still an esquire and the indenture is unusual in giving him both wages and bouche of court – a privilege reserved for knights. He promised to serve Gaunt "tant en temps de pees come de guerre al terme de sa vie" – alike in times of peace and war to the end of his life. He was bound to turn out for war mounted and arrayed in a way suitied to his station in life. In return he was assigned an annuity of 20 marks, drawn from the revenues of the manor of Aldbourne in Wiltshire. The payment would rise to £20 when he was knighted.
Simon Walker's study of the Lancastrian affinity lists Cornwall as plain John, beneath Sir John Cornwall, also a long-serving member of Gaunt's retinue who received the £20 appropriate to a knight. Cornwall of Kinlet is recorded as receiving his 20 marks up to 1399. On 9 June 1397 John Cornewale, knight, was listed as one of those granted royal protection for the expedition to Ireland, commanded by Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, the king's Lieutenant. Mortimer was overlord at Kinlet and Ashton, and medieval records are fairly imprecise about knightly status, which makes it quite probable this Cornwall was the subject of this article. However, there is a strong possibility that it was actually his namesake, who later became Baron Fanhope.
As an established part of the Lancastrian affinity, Cornwall benefited from the overthrow of Richard II in 1399 and was in immediately in favour with Henry IV. He was knighted and was made Sheriff of Shropshire on the first day of the new reign. His annuity was also confirmed. However, his good standing with the new régime was soon threatened by allegations of criminality.
Withiford rustling case.
Cornwall was accused of cattle rustling at Wytheford (also rendered Withiford) in Shropshire in April 1401. Cornwall claimed, through his attorney, that he had been acting on behalf of John de Knyghteley. In support of this he offered a long and complex supporting narrative, starting with the death of Thomas de Charlton, who had held the estate until 1388, and whose heirs were minors. The king had sold their marriages and the custody of their estates to speculators, who in turn sold them to Knyghteley. However, the custody had itself now descended to a minor, and Cornwall claimed to be acting in his interests to reclaim arrears. The case affected the king's interests, as the plaintiffs, who were demanding £100, alleged that their cattle had already been taken into the custody of the county escheator when Cornwall removed them. By the time the case came up for trial in 1402, John Darras was Sheriff of Shropshire. Darras could be relied upon to assist Cornwall as he was both a personal friend and had been married to Joan Corbet, his first cousin. In April 1402 he was one of four local gentry who made mainprise (essentially similar to bail) at Westminster for Cornwall that he would keep the peace, creating a conflict of interest. The case was moved to the Shrewsbury assizes by a writ of nisi prius and there the plaintiffs claimed that Darras had allowed Cornwall to nominate the panel of jurors. Consequently, the jury was dismissed, the case adjourned, and Darras ordered to summon new jurors for the next assizes. Darras was also the returning officer when Cornwall was elected to Parliament.
Member of Parliament, 1402.
Cornwall was returned as a Member of the House of Commons of