John Southcote of Bovey Tracey (1481 – 1556) was an English landowner and Member of Parliament,[1] of the prominent Southcott family of Devon and Cornwall.
[2] In 1544, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Indio and Ullacombe, both in the parish of Bovey Tracey, were granted to John.
John Southcote and the rest of his family were devout Catholics at the time when Edward VI, newly King of England, attempted to make religious reforms in Cornwall.
John as a prominent Cornish MP stood up against the King and was part of the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549.
During the years following the uprising, John Southcote's nephew (also named John Southcott) was noted for expressing his support for his uncle's part in the uprising, and later resigned his office rather than condemn a Roman Catholic priest publicly.