John Cornwall (died 1414)
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.
[14] Edmund served his cousin the king in the First War of Scottish Independence,[9] 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.
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.
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.
[36] 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[37] and the onset of the Black Death in 1349.
[38] In the worst times, Shropshire inquisitions declared estates worthless or nearly so,[39] and landowners sometimes struggle to meet even modest rents,[40] mainly because it was hard to find tenants or labour in the depopulated countryside, although this placed the survivors in an advantageous bargaining position.
[46] 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.
[53] 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.
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.
[57] 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.
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,[62] 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.
Maud was imprisoned on his accusation but doubts seem to have arisen fairly quickly and on 17 October the king ordered her release, on the grounds that there were credible witnesses to the contrary.
Instructions given to Cornwall, John Burley and Thomas Young, at the Parliament of 1404, which took place in Coventry, but they were embodied in a formal commission on 24 March 1405.
[64] They were to supervise the musters of troops in Shropshire and Cheshire and to report back on numbers, as Prince Henry had been appointed the king's lieutenant in North Wales and needed 500 men-at-arms and up to 3000 archers for a punitive expedition.
The restored young earl dominated the politics and parliamentary representation of Shropshire through his extensive network of retainers,[68] which included soldiers, landowners, lawyers and clerics.
On 7 October 1405, Cornwall, Burley and Roger Haldenby, a cleric, were commissioned to raise troops for him to garrison castles in North Wales and Shropshire.
[69] On the same day Cornwall, Arundel and Burley were issued a commission of oyer and terminer to hunt down people in Shropshire who were secretly supplying the rebels.
[71] Cornwall was knight of the shire for Shropshire again in 1407, returned alongside David Holbache, a man of Welsh origins, a close aide and lawyer to Arundel.
[72] Cornwall's friend, John Darras hanged himself at his own manor of Neenton in 1408, the first notice of the suicide being a commission from the king, issued on 30 March, to four Shropshire gentry to investigate possible concealment of the deceased's goods.
[73] Darras had been keeper of Morfe and Shirlett, areas of Royal forest on either side of the Severn in Shropshire, a post his he held in recognition of his military service in the Welsh campaigns.
He alleged he had been hindered in his view of frankpledge and in holding his biannual court leet and that both he and his tenants were not able freely to enjoy their customary common pasture, both within and without the royal forest.
The following year the king received a complaint from John Marshall, Dean of his royal free chapel at Bridgnorth, this time naming Cornwall clearly as the culprit.
[80] Marshall alleged that he and the king's tenants at Claverley were being forced to pay an annual fine to access their time-honoured common grazing for sheep, pigs and other animals.
Even before sending in Arundel's lawyers to investigate, the king secured Cornwall's resignation and on 13 February 1413 installed Roger Willey, Darras's old business partner, as keeper of Morfe and Shirlett in his place.
[81] In April 1413 a group of Midlands gentry, led by William Lichfield, Cornwall's son-in-law, made mainprise of £100 for him at Westminster and he undertook, under a pain of £500, to do no harm to anyone.
Henry V was present in person,[82] along with William Hankford, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in response to complaints about the prevalence of bad governance and murder in Shropshire made at the Fire and Faggot Parliament in Leicester, earlier that year.
