'The next successor to the property' (a son of John Arundell, the friend of Father Cornelius), 'was indeed a great sufferer for conscience' sake. In a letter before me of F. Richard Blount, dated 7th Nov., 1606, he says that Mr. Arundell, amongst others, had been forced to compound for the possession of his property by paying heavy fines to the Crown. He had been convicted of recusancy, but King James directed by his letters patent (20 Feb., 4 Jac. I., 1607) that none of Mr. Arundell's lands were to be seized so long as he paid £240 a year for not frequenting church,' etc.
'George Arundell was another recusant (20 June, 34 Eliz., 1591), and paid a similar fine.
'From a letter in the State Paper Office, dated 21 Oct., 1642, by a Parliamentarian, I make the following extract:
'"Mr. Arundell hath the greatest forces here, and is able to raise more than half the gentlemen in Cornwall, and he alone was the first that began the rebellion there. There hath lately been landed at some creek in that county ten or more seminary priests, which are newly come out of Flanders, and harboured in Mr. Arundell's house.[29] They are merciless creatures, and there is a great way laid for the apprehension of them."
'This gentleman had to suffer the sequestration of his estates for many years, and it cost him nearly £3,000 to get off at last.'
And the continued attachment of the Arundells to their ancient faith is exemplified in an interesting manner, as we shall see further on, by the conventual establishment still existing at Lanherne.
A few words will perhaps be expected as to the church, and the adjacent former residence of the Arundells of Lanherne. The sylvan beauty of the situation and its surroundings has already been adverted to, and the church and churchyard, at least, are still worthy of their site; but little remains of the once noble old mansion, of which Carew wrote: 'This said house of Lanherne is apportioned with a large scope of land, which, while the owners there lived, was employed to frank hospitality.'
At Mawgan Church the fragments of the screen which separates the nave and south aisle are carved with the arms of Arundell quartering Carminow, and on the south side of the chancel are brass shields on which the same arms are quartered with Archdekne, Arches, Carminow, Denham, Durnford, Grenville, etc. At the east end of the aisle on the screen are seven brass plates, 'chiefly inscribed with English and Latin verses, admonitory to the reader and eulogistic of the Arundells,' e.g.:
The transept, or Arundell chapel, was once used as a burial-place for the nuns of the adjoining nunnery; it has a hagioscopic communication with the chancel.
The following inscription on a brass, the chief portion of which is now missing, has also been preserved:
'Here under lyeth buryed Mary Arundell, the daughter of Syr John Arundell, Knight, with the body of Elizabeth, his wyfe, who decessed the 23 day of April, a.d. 1578; and in the fourty-nyne yere of her age. On whose soul God have mercye.
Nearly the whole of the older Arundell brasses, which bore the names, dates of death, and ages of the members of that family are not now to be found in the church; one, a sort of palimpsest brass, bore on one side an acrostic to the memory of Jane Arundell, and on the other a representation of the Deity, and two other figures, probably symbolical. This brass is said to have been removed to the nunnery at the beginning of the present century.
LANHERNE HOUSE, formerly the manor-house of the Arundells, a picturesque but gloomy structure, is now a Roman Catholic Carmelite nunnery, 'by time unstricken, yet with ages hoar.' The south part of the house is the most ancient part; it has stone-mullioned windows, and a good doorway of Catacleuse stone.[30] The vane which still surmounts the dome represents a wolf—the crest of the Trembleath Arundells. About eighty years ago the building was assigned to sixteen nuns who fled from the siege of Antwerp by the French during the revolutionary wars; and their successors, now over twenty in number, continue to occupy the buildings.
As the crow flies, Trerice, anciently Treres, as Carew informs us, is about five miles south of Lanherne and about the same distance from the mouth of the Gannel, one of whose tributary streamlets runs round the slope on whose southern side still stands great part of the handsome and extensive mansion of this branch of the family. It is not the original building, dating as it does only from the year 1573; but its charming and sheltered situation, 'its costly and commodious dwellings,' the rich colours of the time-stained masonry, its huge mullioned windows, and the magnificent proportions of its large and lofty hall, stamp it as one of the few remaining mansions of the Cornish gentry that speak of the wealth and power and hospitality of the 'good old times.'
The county histories are almost silent as to the early seat of this branch of the family; but there is no reason to doubt that its site remains the same; and that Trerice was inhabited by an Arundell at least so far back as the reign of Edward III.—one Ralph being here, whilst his cousin (or perhaps his brother), Sir John, who married Elizabeth Carminow, held sway at Lanherne.[32] Apropos of this marriage into the powerful and wealthy family of Carminow, it is interesting to note that in the Register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter, and founder of Exeter College, Oxon, we find that, in the year 1316, 'on the Monday before Michaelmas, our lord' (the Bishop) 'offered his niece, Joan Kaignes, as wife to John de Arundell, son and heir of John de Arundell defunct, who refused for the present; William Walle was present.' Were John's affections already pledged to the fair Elizabeth? The incident shows at least that the Bishop was desirous of forming an alliance between one of his own relatives and a house so important as that of Arundell.
Hals says that the Arundells of Trerice bore, at one time, the arms of Lansladron, viz., sable, three chevrons argent; but that at length they adopted the well-known coat of the family: sable, six swallows argent—three, two, and one.
Leland, writing of the Arundells of Trerice, observes: 'This Arundale giveth no part of the arms of the great Arundale of Lanheron, by St. Columbe. But he told me that he thought he cam of the Arundales in base Normandy, that were lordes of Culy Castelle;[33] that now is descended to one Monseir de la Fontaine, a Frenchman, by heir generale. This Arundale is caulid Arundale of Trerise, by a difference from Arundale of Lanheron. Trerise is a lordship of his, a three or four miles from Alein chirch.'
'What Leland means,' observes Tonkin, 'by his first words I cannot imagine. The then owner of Trerise was Sir John Arundell, who could not tell him that his arms were different from Arundells of Lanhearn, since it is most certain that they constantly gave the same, viz., the six swallows, and that without any difference or distinction, as not being well agreed on which was the elder family of the two; only, as it is before observed, Arundell of Trerice, the better to declare of what house he was, did always quarter the arms of Trerice with his own. Nay, further; as appeareth by a very fair pedigree of this family, drawn up by Mr. Camden himself, which was lately in the Lord Arundell's library, where I had the favour to peruse it, the ancestor of the Lanhearn family, which came over with William the Conqueror, left a widow, afterwards married to the ancestor of Arundell of Trerice, that came over at the same time; so that both these families are descended from that same woman. But as she was first married to the ancestor of Arundell of Lanhearne, it is supposed from thence that he was descended from the elder brother, and the other from the younger, as being both of the same stock; which is further confirmed, for that Arundell of Lanhearn had always the greater estate, and made the greater figure in their country, whence they were called the Great Arundells, though this of Trerice was likewise very eminent.'
Carew, who married into the family of the Tolverne Arundells, and who may therefore be assumed to be of some authority in the matter, does not go so far back as this for the rise of the Arundells of Trerice. He says, 'In Edward III.'s reign, Ralph Arundel matched with the heir of this land and name; since which time his issue hath there continued, and increased their livelihood by sundry like inheritors as St. John, Jew, Durant, Thurlebear,' etc. He adds, 'Precisely to rip up the whole pedigree were more tedious than behooveful; and therefore I will only (as by the way) touch some few points which may serve, in part, to show what place and regard they have borne in the commonwealth.'
I venture to think that, so far as modern readers are concerned, it will be well to adopt Carew's view; and that the more especially on account of the many difficulties which beset the case, as already mentioned at the commencement of this chapter. I do not therefore propose to advert to the Sir Oliver de Arundell of Carhayes of the time of Henry III., who married a lady of the same patronymic as himself, and who indeed was probably the true founder of the Trerice branch; but will at once mention, as the first historical representative of this part of the family, a Sir John Arundell of Trerice, Sheriff of Cornwall, who, early in the fifteenth century, viz. in the seventh year of Henry V., accompanied the Earl of Devon on a sea voyage 'in defence of the realm;' no doubt the same knight who was in the following reign addressed by the Earl of Huntingdon—Lieutenant-General to John, Duke of Bedford, Constable and Admiral of England—as 'Vice-Admiral of Cornwall.' I do not, however, feel certain whether it was he or his son (but more probably the latter) whose curious story has been thus narrated by Hals and by Carew.
Hals says, 'As soon as King Edward IV. heard of the surprise of St. Michael's Mount by the Earl of Oxford, he issued forth his proclamation, proclaiming him, and all his adherents, traitors, and then consulted how to regain both to his obedience; and in order thereto, he forthwith sent Sir John Arundell of Trerice, Knight, then Sheriff of Cornwall, to reduce and besiege the same by his posse comitatus; which gentleman, pursuant to his orders and by virtue of his office, soon rose a considerable army of men and soldiers within his bailiwick, and marched with them towards St. Michael's Mount, where, being arrived, he sent a trumpeter to the Earl with a summons of surrender of that garrison to him for King Edward, upon mercy; especially for that in so doing, in all probability he would prevent the effusion of much Christian blood. To this summons of the trumpeter the Earl sent a flat denial; saying further that, rather than he would yield the fort on those terms, himself and those with him were all resolved to lose their lives in defence thereof. Whereupon the Sheriff commanded his soldiers, being very numerous on all parts, to storm the Mount and reduce it by force; but alas, maugre all their attempts (of this kind), the besieged so well defended every part of this rocky mountain, that in all places the Sheriff's men were repulsed with some loss; and the besieged issued forth from the outer gate and pursued them with such violence that the said Sir John Arundell and some others were slain upon the sands at the foot of the Mount, to the great discouragement of the new-raised soldiers, who quickly departed thence, having lost their leader, leaving the besieged in better heart than they found them, as much elevated at their good success as themselves were dismayed at their bad fortune.'
'Sir John Arundell,' as Mr. Carew, in his 'Survey of Cornwall,' tells us, p. 119, 'had long before been told, by some fortune-teller, that he would be slain on the sands; wherefore, to avoid that destiny, he removed from Efford, near Stratton, on the sands, where he dwelt, to Trerice, far off from the sea-sands; yet by this misfortune fulfilled the prediction in another place.'
The connexion of this family with Stratton and Bude is further indicated by the churchwardens' accounts of Stratton Church, where knells were rung in 1526 for the Arundells; they are also recorded as having presented vestments to this church.
That the Arundells of Trerice long continued in Royal favour is evident from the fact that one of the family—a Sir John, a name to which all branches of the Arundells seem to have been extremely partial—received an autograph letter from the Queen of Henry VII., dated 12th October, 1488, wherein her Majesty informs the knight that she has been safely delivered of a prince.
We now arrive at some Arundells who make a greater figure in history than any of those who preceded them; and who, like their forefathers, seem to have stood well at Court. For in 1520, we find King Henry VIII. writing to Sir John Arundell of Trerice, his Esquire of the body—'Jack of Tilbury'—that he should give his attendance at Canterbury about the entertainment of the Emperor, whose landing on the English coast was then shortly expected.
Three years afterwards the same knight took prisoner Duncan Campbell, a notorious Scottish pirate, in a fight at sea, 'as our chronicle mentioneth;'[34] concerning which, 'I thought it not amiss,' says Carew, 'to insert a letter sent him from Thomas, Duke of Norfolk (to whom he then belonged), that you may see the style of those days.
'"By the Duke of Norfolk.
'"Right wellbeloued, in our hearty wise we commend us unto you, letting you wit, that by your seruant, this bearer, we haue receyued your letters, dated at Truru the 5 day of this moneth of April, by which we perceyue the goodly, valiant and ieopardous enterprise, it hath pleased God of late to send you, by the taking of Duncane Camel, and other Scots, on the sea; of which enterprise we haue made relation vnto the King's Highnesse, who is not a little ioyous and glad, to heare of the same, and hath required vs instantly in his name, to giue you thanks for your said valiant courage, and bolde enterprise in the premises: and by these our letters, for the same your so doing, we doe not onely thanke you in our most effectual wise, but also promise you, that during our life, we will be glad to aduance you to any preferment we can. And ouer this, you shall understand, our said Soueraigne Lord's pleasure is that you shall come and repaire to his Highnes, with diligence in your owne person, bringing with you the said Captiue, and the master of the Scottish ship; at which time, you shall not onely be sure of his especiall thanks by mouth, and to know his further pleasure therein, but also of us to further any your reasonable pursuits vnto his Highnes, or any other, during our life, to the best of our power, accordingly. Written at Lambeth, the 11th day of Aprill aforesaid
'"Superscribed To our right wellbeloved Servant
'"John Arundell of Trerice."'
It is singular that (so far as I am aware) there is so little recorded in history of an action to which so much importance was evidently attributed at the time of its performance.
'And in 35th Henry VIII.,' continues Carew, 'the King wrote to Sir John Arundell of Trerice, touching his discharge from the Admiralty of the fleet, lately committed unto him, and that he should deliver the ship which he sailed in, to Sir Nicholas Poynts. The same year the King wrote to him again, that he should attend him in his wars against the French King, with his servants, tenants, and others, within his rooms and offices, especially horsemen. Other letters from the King there are, whose date is not expressed, neither can I by any means hunt it out. One to his servant, John Arundell of Trerice, Esquire, willing him not to repair with his men, and to wait in the rearward of his army, as he had commanded him, but to keep them in a readiness for some other service. Another to Sir John Arundell of Trerice, praying and desiring him to the Court, the Quindene of St. Hillary next, wheresoever the King shall then be within the realm.
'There are also letters, directed to Sir John Arundell of Trerice, from the King's Counsel; by some of which it appeareth, that (temp. Edward VI.) he was Vice-Admiral of the King's ships in the west seas; and by others that he had the goods and lands of certain rebels given him, for his good service against them.
'Again the Queen, 1st of Mary (1553), wrote to Sir John Arundell of Trerice, praying and requiring him that he, with his friends and neighbours, should see the Prince of Spain most honourably entertained, if he fortuned to land in Cornwall. She also wrote to him (being then Sheriff of Cornwall, 2nd Mary) touching the election of the Knights of the Shire, and the burgesses for the Parliament. She likewise once more wrote to him (2nd and 3rd Philip and Mary) that (notwithstanding the instructions to the justices) he should muster, and furnish with servants, tenants, and others, under his rule and offices, with his friends, for the defence and quieting of the country, withstanding of enemies, and any other employment; as also to certify what force of horse and foot he could arm.
'These few notes,' Carew says, 'I have culled out of many others. Sir John Arundell, last mentioned, by his first wife, the co-heir of Bevill, had issue Roger, who died in his father's lifetime; and Katherine, married to Prideaux. Roger, by his wife Trendenham, left behind him a son called John. Sir John's second wife was daughter to Erisy, and widow to Gourlyn, who bare him John, his succeeder in Trerice, and much other fair revenues, whose due commendation, because another might better deliver than myself, who touch him as nearly as Tacitus did Agricola, I will, therefore, bound the same within his desert, and only say this, which all who knew him, shall testify with me; that, of his enemies, he would take no wrong, nor on them any revenge; and being once reconciled, embraced them, without scruple or remnant of gall. Over his kindred, he held a wary and charey care, which bountifully was expressed, when occasion so required: reputing himself not only principal of the family, but a general father to them all. Private respects ever, with him, gave place to the common good: as for frank, well-ordered, and continual hospitality, he outwent all show of competence: spare, but discreet of speech, better conceiving than delivering; equally stout, and kind, not upon lightness of humour, but soundness of judgment; inclined to commiseration, ready to relieve. Briefly, so accomplished in virtue, that those, who for many years together waited in nearest place about him, and, by his example, learned to hate untruth, have often deeply protested, how no curious observation of theirs could ever descry in him any one notorious vice. By his first foreremembered wife he had four daughters, married to Carew (the writer himself), Summaster, Cosowarth, and Denham: by his latter, the daughter of Sir Robert Denis, two sons and two daughters; the elder, even from his young years, 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. The younger brother followeth the Netherland wars, with so well-liked a carriage, that he outgoeth his age and time of service in preferment. Their mother equalleth her husband's former children, and generally all his kindred, in kind usage, with her own, and is by them all, again, so acknowledged and respected.'
But here we are anticipating a little, and must return to the hero of the engagement with the Scotch pirate. The victor was at length himself vanquished by the all-conquering one; and Sir John's monument is still to be seen in Stratton Church, in which place he was buried, probably either from his connexion with the Grenvilles[35]—great patrons of that church as well as of all the other churches in the neighbourhood—or else, perhaps on account of his family having resided at Ebbingford (Efford) near Bude Haven, hard by. Indeed, one Raynulfe Arundell was lord of Albaminster and Stratton so early as the days of Henry III.
On Sir John Arundell's tomb in Stratton Church he is represented in brass, lying between his two wives—Mary Beville, of Talland, and Juliana Erisey, of Erisey. Below the feet of his first wife stand the sons, Richard, John, and Roger; under the second are ranged the daughters, 'Margereta, Marie, Jane, Phelipe, Grace, Margeri, and Annes.' The inscription is:
'Here lyeth buryed Sir John Arundell, Treryse, Knyght, who, praysed be God, dyed in the Lorde the xxv daye of November in the yeare of oure Lorde God a MCCCCCLXI., and in the IIIxx and VII yeare of his age, whose soule now resteth with the faythfull Chrystians in our Lorde.'
Carew has told us something of 'Jack of Tilbury's' son John, but only makes a short reference to a Sir Thomas Arundell, who I cannot help thinking must have been one of the Trerice family, although some authorities refer him to the Lanherne branch. He was, together with Sir John Tregonwell and others, appointed, in 1535, to be a Commissioner for the suppression of all religious houses 'of the sume of ccc marks and under;' and the rough reception which they met with at the Priory of St. Nicholas, Exeter, may be read in Dr. Oliver's 'Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis,' p. 116.
He had been one of Wolsey's Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, was made Knight of the Bath at Anne Boleyn's coronation, and was appointed Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall, 1549.
He and his elder brother, John, were committed to the Tower (1549-50) for implication in the Humphry Arundell rebellion in January, but were released October, 1551. He was, however, re-committed to the Tower in the same month, accused of being concerned in the Duke of Somerset's conspiracy, wherein, Bishop Pouet says, 'Arundell conspired with that ambitious and subtil Alcibiades, the Earl of Warwick, after Duke of Northumberland, to pull down the good Duke of Somerset, King Edward's uncle and protector.' But, as Mr. Doyne Bell points out, in his 'History of the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, in the Tower,' if this be correct, it is singular that he should have been afterwards re-arrested for conspiring with Somerset against Northumberland.
He was brought to trial with Sir Ralf Vane, and tried on the following day, viz., 29th January, 1551-52, when Machyn records that 'the quest qwytt ym of tresun, and cast hym of felonye, to be hanged.' Mr. Perne (probably the Prior of the Black Friars) 'was allowed to resort to Sir Thomas to instruct hym to dye well.'
We read in Mr. Richard Howlett's 'Monumenta Franciscana,' that, in the 'Chronicon ab anno 1189 ad 1556, ex registro Fratrum Minorum Londoniæ,' under date 26th February, 1552, is recorded that on that day, 'the wyche was Fryday, was hongyd at Towre-hylle sir Myllys Partryge, knyghte, the wyche playd with Kynge Henry the viiite at dysse for the grett belfery that stode in Powlles churche-yerde; the wyche was callyd the gret belfery; and Sir Raffe Vane, theys too ware hongyd. Also sir Myhylle Stonnappe and sir Thomas Arndelle, theys too ware be-heddyd at that same tyme. And theis iiii. Knyghtes confessyd that the war neuer gylte for soche thynges as was layd vn-to their charge, and dyde in that same oppinioun.' He was buried in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, in the Tower.
The Commission for seizing on the possessions in Cornwall and Devon of Sir Thomas Arundell, 'rebel and traitor,' is preserved amongst the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum (433, art. 1557); and an interesting catalogue of his plate, together with a list of that portion which was returned to his wife, Margaret, on 11th June, 1557, will be found in the Add. MSS. 5751.
I think, but am by no means clear on the point, that this is the Arundell to whom Henry VIII. granted, on 6th June, 1545, Scilly, and the monastery of Tavistock, and to whom, in the same year, the King wrote a remarkable letter concerning the Papists in Cornwall, which is preserved amongst the MSS. at Westminster.
Carew thus refers to his fate: 'Sir Thomas Arundel, a younger brother of Lanhearn House, married the sister to Queen Katharine Howard, and in Edward VI.'s time was made a Privy Counsellor; but cleaving to the Duke of Somerset, he lost his head with him.' But Carew does not mention, to the credit of his elder brother John, how (as we read in T. Wright's 'Queen Elizabeth and Her Times,' i. 507-8) the Earl of Bedford, writing to Lord Burghley from Truro, on 3rd August, 1574, reports that, the Spanish navy being now ready for sea, Sir John Arundell and others met him eight miles from Plymouth, and accompanied him throughout his visit to Cornwall; the object of which seems to have been an inspection of the defences. The Earl reports that he found Sir John 'ready and serviceable in all things.'
Perhaps the most interesting member of the family is the man who now appears upon the scene, the grandson of 'Jack of Tilbury,' and son of the foregoing Sir John. I mean 'John for the King,' the valiant hero who held Pendennis Castle so stoutly for Charles I. He was the son of John Arundell of Trerice, by his second wife, Gertrude Dennys, of Holcombe; and Richard Carew, the historian of Cornwall, married his half-sister, Julian.
Unless I am much mistaken, he was present—or if not he, it must have been his son Richard, who was also at Edgehill and at Lansdowne—with most of the Cornish gentry, including Sir Bevil Grenville, Trevanion, and others, at the victory obtained by the King's forces over the army of the Parliament, in 1623, on Braddock Downs—a fight which I have endeavoured to describe in the chapter on the Grenvilles.
At any rate, twenty years later, Colonel John Arundell, of Trerice, in Newlyn,[36] was appointed Governor of Pendennis Castle, in succession to Sir Nicholas Slanning, who fell at the siege of Bristol. According to some accounts he was then sixty-seven years of age, according to others eighty-seven; but the former is no doubt correct. Here, in the following year, he harboured for a night or two the unfortunate Queen Henrietta Maria, on her flight into France from Exeter (where she had just been confined of a prince) before the army of the Earl of Essex. The then Sheriff of Cornwall thus writes to his wife, Lady Francis Basset,[37] on the occasion:
'This thyrd of July, 1644.
'Deare Wiffe,
'Here is the woefullest spectacle my eyes yet ever look'd on; the most worne and weak pitifull creature in ye world, the poore Queene shifting for one hour's liffe longer.'
And here John Arundell also received the Prince, afterwards Charles II., in February, 1646. A room in the castle still retains the name of the King's Room.
The story of the siege has been admirably detailed by Captain Oliver, R.A., in his 'Pendennis and St. Mawes: an Historical Sketch of Two Cornish Castles.' On the 17th March, 1646, Fairfax took up his quarters at Arwenack House, the ancient seat of the Killigrews, as we shall see in the account of that family; the Killigrews themselves were within the castle walls. To Fairfax's summons to deliver up Pendennis, the gallant old Arundell gave, as might have been expected, 'a peremptory denyall,' saying (according to a contemporary, and not a friendly, account) that 'hee was 70 yeares old, and could not have many days to live, and therefore would not in his old yeares blemish his honour in surrendering thereof, and would rather be found buried in the ruines thereof, than commit so vilde a treason.' And so, with his brave garrison, 'all desperate persons and good soldiers ... many very considerable men ... and the violentest enemies that the Parliament hathe in this kingdom,' Arundell prepared to withstand the siege. Fairfax's haughty summons demanded a reply within two hours, and this was the answer he got—(it is preserved among the Clarendon State Papers):—
'Colonel John Arundell to Sir Thomas Fairfax.
'Sir,
'The Castle was committed to my Government by his Majesty, who by our Laws hath the command of the Castles and Forts of this Kingdom; and my age of seventy summons me hence shortly. Yet I shall desire no other testimony to follow my departure than my conscience to God and loyalty to his Majesty, whereto I am bound by all the obligations of nature, duty, and oath. I wonder you demand the Castle without authority from his Majesty; which, if I should render, I brand myself and my posterity with the indelible character of treason. And, having taken less than two minutes resolution, I resolve that I will here bury myself before I deliver up this Castle to such as fight against his Majesty, and that nothing you can threaten is formidable to me in respect of the loss of loyalty and conscience.
'Your Servant,
'John Arundell
'of Trerise.
'18 March, 1646.'
The story of the five months' siege, and how Pendennis was the last fortress but one (Raglan) to surrender to the Parliament, are matters of history; the besieged felt that the eyes of England were upon them, and did not flinch from the terrible privations which they were about to suffer. Two other summonses to surrender were made in the following month, with the same result as before. But at length, after many of the horses had been killed 'for beefe,' the garrison was reduced to the last extremity, and honourable articles of surrender were at length agreed to on the 16th August, 1646. Then the brave little band marched out 'with their Horses, compleat Arms, and other Equipages, according to their present or past Commands or Qualities, with flying Colours, Trumpets sounding, Drums beating, Matches lighted at both ends, Bullets in their Mouths,' and so on;—every man of them, starved and ragged as they all were, like their veteran leader, 'game to the toes.'[38]
Clarendon too (book x., par. 73) tells how they 'refused all summons, nor admitted any treaty till all their provisions were so near consumed that they had not victual left for four and twenty hours; and then they treated, and carried themselves in the treaty with that resolution and unconcernedness that the enemy concluded they were in no straits, and so gave them the conditions they proposed, which were as good as any garrison in England had accepted. This castle,' the historian goes on to say, 'was defended by the Governor thereof, John Arundel, of Trerice, in Cornwall, an old gentleman of near four score years of age, and one of the best estates and interest in that country, who, with the assistance of his son Richard Arundel (who was then a colonel in the army, and a stout and diligent officer, and was by the King, after his return, made a baron,[39] Lord Arundel of Trerice, in memory of his father's services, and his own eminent behaviour throughout the war), maintained and defended the same to the last extremity.' The estates of Richard Arundell, which had been confiscated, were restored to him on his being created a baron.
A letter from the King, in the possession of Mr. Rashleigh, of Menabilly (quoted by Captain Oliver), still further illustrates the high place which the Arundells held in the esteem of the first Charles. Writing to Sir William Killigrew, who had solicited the King that the reversion of the Government of Pendennis Castle should be promised to the above-mentioned Richard Arundell, Charles says:
'Will. Killigrew,
'Your suite unto me that I would conferre upon Mr. Arundell of Trerise Eldest sonne the reversion after his father of the government of Pendennis Castle which I had formerly bestowed upon you,[40] is so great a testimonye of your affection to my service, and of your preferring the good of that before any Interest of your Owne that I have thought fitt to lette you knowe in this particular way, how well I take it, and that my conferring that place according to your desire shall bee an earnest unto you of my intentions to recompence and reward you in a better (kind?).
'resting
'Your assured friend,
'Charles R.'
'Oxford the 12th
'Jan. 1643.'
And accordingly in 1662 Richard Arundell, who was present at the siege of Pendennis, and whom, by the way, Clarendon used to address as his 'dear Dick,' succeeded Sir Peter Killigrew in the governorship of the Castle, doubtless discharging the office with ability; but I do not find anything noteworthy during his tenure of the office, except, perhaps, that when the oath of supremacy was administered in 1666 (after the great fire of London) to Pendennis, as well as to many other garrisons, one man alone in that castle, and he, one of Lord Arundell's own servants, and a Roman Catholic, refused to take it.
Some authorities have stated that Richard Lord Arundell was succeeded in the governorship by his son, Lord John; but this is, to say the least, doubtful.
Pity, as it now seems to us, that gallant old John Arundell did not live long enough to see the King 'enjoy his own again,' and to receive the honours which, however, as we have seen, were ultimately conferred upon his son and successor. The capture of Pendennis and the final loss of the King's cause nearly ruined old John Arundell also; and it is said that he was even reduced to crave assistance from Cromwell himself, urging that the Trerice Arundells 'had once the honour to stand in some friendship, or even kinship, with your noble family.' The old hero was buried at Duloe, where, until lately, his monument might have been seen. Well would he have deserved a promised barony or any honours that might have been bestowed upon him, for he and his family served their King to the utmost of their means, four of his sons took up arms in the royal cause, and the two elder were King's men in the House of Commons. The eldest was killed at the head of his troop, whilst charging and driving back a sally at Plymouth in 1643; and Richard, the second son, the first Baron Arundell of Trerice, probably was at Edgehill and at Lansdowne, as well as at Pendennis.
The Arundells of Trerice became an extinct family by the death of the fourth baron, John, who died in 1768, when the estates passed to William Wentworth, his wife's nephew, who re-settled them, and they eventually became the property of their present possessor, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., M.P.
A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1829 (xcix. pt. 2, p. 215) observed that at that time the legal representatives of the Lords Arundell of Trerice were Mr. I. T. P. Bettesworth Trevanion, of Carhayes in Cornwall, and the Honble. Ada Byron, daughter of the poet—'Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart'—they being the descendants of the body of Anne, or Agnes, the only sister of Richard, the first Baron Arundell, that left issue. Yet it should perhaps also be recorded how another Arundell, descended from the Trerice stock, served his country in a useful, if not in so distinguished a capacity as did some of his ancestors; for the Honble. Richard Arundell, an uncle of the last baron, was M.P. for Knaresborough, was Clerk of the Pipe, Surveyor of Works, and Master and Warden of the Mint, and a Commissioner of the Treasury. He married the Lady Frances Manners, a daughter of the Duke of Rutland, and died, sine prole, in 1759. Walpole tells how Lady Arundell, during the earthquake panic of 1750, was one of those ladies who fled out of town (to avoid it) some ten miles off, where they were to play brag till five in the morning, and then came back to town, 'I suppose' (says Walpole) 'to look for the bones of their husbands and families under the rubbish.' 'Earthquake-gowns' were worn by ladies during this panic—i.e., gowns made of some warm materials in which they could sit up all night out of doors.
Whilst I write the following lines, there lies before me an extremely rare, if not unique, MS. chart of Falmouth Haven and its tributary waters. It was made by one Baptista Boazio in 1597, and on it is marked, 'Tolverne Place, Mr. John Arondell.' The chart is of peculiar interest, inasmuch as, in addition to the ordinary information contained in documents of this nature, it gives the names of the occupants of the principal houses at the time. Thus we find a 'Buscowen' at Tregothnan (then called Buscowen House), a 'Carminow' at Vintangollan, a 'Bonithon' at Cariklew (Carclew), a 'Trefusis' at Trefusis, and so on. King Harry's (or rather Henry's) Passage (so named on the chart) and the Tolverne Ferry are also shown on this map; far more important passages of course in those days, when one of the main thoroughfares from the eastern to the western parts of Cornwall, through Tregony, Ruan-lani-horne and Philleigh, crossed the Fal at this point.
Tolverne is shown on the map as a place of some importance, as it doubtless was in those days; for here (if anywhere in Cornwall) Henry VIII. had, more than fifty years before the date of the map, probably stayed on his visit of inspection to the two castles of Pendennis and St. Mawes at the mouth of the haven, hard by, which that monarch (as Leland's inscriptions on the masonry record) was deeply interested in making secure against a foreign enemy.
Tolverne is now merely a substantial farmhouse. We are indebted to Carew for the following picture of the place, contemporary with the map, as it stood in his time nearly three hundred years ago: 'Amongst all of the houses upon that side the river, Talverne, for pleasant prospect, large scope, and other housekeeping commodities, challengeth the pre-eminence. It was given to a younger brother of Lanhearne, for some six or seven descents past, and hath bred gentlemen of good worth and calling; amongst whom I may not forget the late kind and valiant Sir John Arundell, who matched with Godolphin, nor John, his vertuous and hopeful succeeding son, who married with Carew.' It will be remembered also that Richard Carew himself married an Arundell.
Philleigh was their church, as Mawgan was that of the Lanherne Arundells, and Newlyn East that of the Arundells of Trerice; and the transept of Philleigh is still called the Tolverne or Falmouth Aisle; but no traces of Arundell monuments are now to be found there;—although C. S. Gilbert, in his history of Cornwall, states that in one of the windows there was a shield bearing the arms of the family. Yet, so early as 1383, the connexion of the family with Church affairs in the parish is shown by the fact that, in that year, Ralph Soor, or Le Sore, obtained a license from the Bishop of Exeter for saying mass in his chapel in his manor-house of Tolferne; and that a Sir John Arundell of Trembleth[41] married Joane le Soore of Tolverne, in the reign of Edward I., two or three generations before this.[42]
The Arundells do not, however, seem to have regularly established themselves at Tolverne until a son of Sir John of Lanherne and his wife Annora Lambourne—Sir Thomas Arundell of Tolverne—settled here with his wife, Margery Lerchdekne. They had no children, and, on the lady's death, Sir Thomas took unto himself a second wife, Elizabeth Paulton, from whom the Tolverne Arundells may be said to have descended. Sir Thomas himself died in 1443; but I do not know where he was buried; probably at Philleigh.
Of the lives of the Tolverne Arundells, whose current seems to have been as tranquil as that of the sylvan Fal, which ebbed and flowed round their domain, I find little to record, except that they intermarried with many of the old Cornish families—with the Courtneys of Boconnoc, with Reskymer, Trelawny, Carminow, St. Aubyn, their neighbour Trefusis, Chamond, Godolphin, and, as we have seen, Carew. We have traces of the will of Thomas Arundell, Esq., of Talverne, dated 22nd May, 1552, which shows that he possessed tenements in Truro borough and elsewhere, also the passage and passage-boat of Talverne. The inventory of his property was sworn at £224 5s. 9d. There is also extant the will of John Arundell, 7th February, 1598, but it contains little of interest, except that he bequeaths to his mother his 'little guilt sack-cup with a cover,' and that his executors were Richard Carew of Antony, and Richard Trevanion of St. Gerrans.
One of the sons of the latter Arundell, namely Thomas, who was knighted by James I., sold Tolverne; having seriously impaired his fortune, it is said, by endeavouring to discover an imaginary island in America, called 'Old Brazil;' he afterwards lived at Truthall in the parish of Sithney. One of the Truthall Arundells, John, was Colonel of Horse for Charles II., and a Deputy-Governor of Pendennis Castle under his relative Richard, Lord Arundell of Trerice. He was buried at Sithney on 25th May, 1671; but I have hitherto been unable to trace anything further of interest of his history, or of that of his descendants. One of the latest members of this branch married William Jago, of Wendron, whose children took the name and arms of Arundell in 1815; and it may be added that Hals the historian descended from the Arundells by the female line.
The story of the Arundells of Cornwall is nearly told. There were, as I intimated at the commencement of this chapter, some minor branches, who perhaps deserve a passing notice: the most noteworthy of whom appears to be the branch that settled at the manor[43] and barton of Menadarva (== the hill by the water), in the parish of Illogan, near the sea-coast, and about three miles north-west of Camborne. This branch seems to have been founded by Robert, a natural son of that Sir John Arundell of Trerice, Vice-Admiral of Cornwall, 'Jack of Tilbury,' who died in the third year of Elizabeth's reign. Robert took to wife Elizabeth Clapton, and they had numerous descendants.
I must once more be indebted to Hals, for the following bit of gossip about the Arundells of Menadarva: 'The last gentleman of this family dying without issue male, his sisters married to Tresahar and others, became for a time, possessed of this lordship; but it happened that a brother of theirs also, who was a merchant-factor in Spain, who married an innkeeper's widow there, in Malaga or Seville, of English extraction, was said to be dead without issue; but it seems, before his death, had issue by her an infant son, who was bred up in Spain till he came of age, without knowledge of his relations aforesaid; who being brought into England with his mother, temp. William III., delivered ejectments upon the barton and manor of Menadarva and the occupants thereof, as heir-at-law to Arundell, and brought down a trial upon the same at Lanceston, in this county, where, upon the issue, it appeared, upon the oaths of Mr. Delliff, and other Spanish merchants of London, that the said heir was the legitimate son of Mr. Arundell, aforesaid, of Spain, and born under coverture or marriage. He obtained a verdict and judgment thereon for the same, and is now in possession thereof. He married Tremanheer of Penzance, and hath issue. The arms of this family are the same as those of the Arundells of Trerice, with due distinction.'
An offshoot, as I take him to be, of the Menadarva Arundells, one Francis, who was born about the year 1620, is said to have settled at Trengwainton, near Penzance, where they lived for some generations; and one of them, Francis Arundell, served with some distinction on the side of the Parliament during the Civil War, ranking as captain. I fancy it must be his son who mourned in Latin verse, after the fashion of the time, the deaths of two Queens of England, while, as a Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, he was under the tuition of Isaac Barrow.
Yet another minor branch of the Arundells remains to be noticed, viz. a younger branch of the Arundells of Lanherne, descended from that Sir John Arundell who married Elizabeth Danet, of Danet's Hall. They had their seat at Trevithick, some two miles west of the town of St. Columb Major, and not much farther from Lanherne itself. The representative of the family who was alive at the time of the Herald's Visitation in 1620, was named Thomas, who married Rachel, the daughter of Sir Giles Montpesson, Knight, and who, Hals tell us, died 'without issue, but not without wasting a great part of his estate.'
Now, to adopt a metaphor of Sir Humphry Davy's, at length the great stream of the Arundells of Cornwall, like some mighty river losing itself among the sands as it approaches the ocean shore, becomes so divided that we can no longer easily trace its course. After the names and dates to which we have been referring, no Arundell of distinction seems to have arisen in Cornwall; and their places soon 'knew them no more.' They became scattered throughout the county,[44] and by the help of the Bishop of Exeter's transcripts, and the Parish Registers of Camborne, St. Erme, St. Ewe, Falmouth, Fowey, Gulval, Mawnan, Menheniot, Mevagissey, Sheviock, and Sithney, we find that down to the year 1725 there were still indeed Arundells in Cornwall being christened, dying, marrying,—but no longer 'great Arundells' as of yore: in fact, the entry in the year 1725, in the St. Erme Register, merely records the baptism of Charles, the son of Richard Arundell, 'a day labourer.'
Yet, by a strange freak of fortune, not only did the female line continue, but one of the Arundells—William by name—married nearly two and a quarter centuries ago, Dorothy, a daughter of that Theodore Palæologus[45] who was buried in Landulph Church in 1636. She is described in the Parish Register as being 'ex stirpe Imperatorum.' So that there probably flows in the veins of many a rustic of the neighbourhood of Callington and Saltash the mingled blood of those Arundells who came over to England with the Conqueror, and that of the Byzantine Emperors of the East.