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563 ROBERTS V SAMUEL John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes of , co. v John Samuel, the younger of Lanlivery, co. Cornwall, gent March 1636 – December 1638

Name index:

Arundell, John, esq (also Arundel) Basby, Mr Bearsey, William (also Bersey) Bennett, Thomas Billing Bligh, Neville, esq Canning, D. Carter, John, esq Chapman, Nicholas, gent Code, Mr Cooke, John, esq Courtney, Francis, gent (also Courtenay) Dethick, Gilbert, registrar Devereux, Robert, earl of Essex Diggings, William, servant Duck, Arthur, lawyer Eden, Thomas, lawyer Edyes, John Gros, Edward, gent Harris, Richard, servant Harte, John, esq Hender, Frances Hender, John Holmes, William, innkeeper Howard, Henry, baron Maltravers Howard, Thomas, earl of Arundel and Surrey James, Anna, spinster Kestell, Edward, innkeeper Kestell, John (also Kestle) Lambert, Charles, baron Lambert Laugherne, Theophilus (also Laugharne) Luke, Henry, blacksmith Lumley Maior, Griffin (also Major) Marshall, John, Mr Marten, Henry, knight Mercer, Mr Pope, Richard, ostler Prust, William, gent 2

Rawe, William Rich, Lucy Rich, Robert, earl of Warwick Robartes, Frances, lady Robartes (also Roberts) Robartes, John, baron Robartes (also Roberts) Robartes, Lucy, lady Robartes (also Roberts) Robartes, Richard, baron Robartes (also Roberts) Samuell, John the elder, gent (also Samuel) Samuell, John the younger, gent (also Samuel) Scory, John Stuart, Charles I, king Stuart, Charles, Prince of Wales Tipper, Mr Tregage, John Treis, Leonard, esq Vincent, Henry, gent

Place index:

Cornwall, Boscastle Egloshayle Kenwyn Lanhydrock Lanlivery River St Cleer St Clement St Wenn Truro

London, Arundel House Fleet Street

Radnor

Wales

Subject index: assizes 3 civil war comparison denial of gentility denial of hat diginity drinking healths herald hunting other courts parliamentarian quarter sessions scatological insult threatened violence

Abstract

The quarrel between the two men had begun more than two years earlier when Lord Robartes had erected a weir on the at Restormel, Cornwall. Some of Robartes’ workmen were fined and imprisoned for this at the assizes and Robartes himself had been reprimanded by the Prince of Wales’s council for the Duchy of Cornwall, all apparently at the instigation of John Samuel and his father. Soon after this Robartes and his friends had hunted in the park at Restormel, spoiling hedges and corn, in what was seen as a deliberate defiance of the Samuels who were the prince’s tenants there. John Samuel the younger responded by insulting Robartes on a number of occasions semi-publicly. At dinner with friends at Edward Kestell’s inn in Truro, Cornwall, in July 1634 he had joked and laughed at Robartes’s expense; in John Edyes’ wine cellar in Bodmin, Cornwall, around September 1634 he had refused to drink Robartes’s health, saying that ‘he did not care a fart for the Lord Robartes’; and about twelve months later, coming out of the church in Bodmin in the company of Lord Lambert and others he had refused to remove his hat to Robartes, saying: ‘what shall I putt off my hatt always, putt aside his wealth and I am as good a man as my lord’. Lambert appears to have sided with Samuel in these disputes. The case was under way by March 1636 and initially Robartes intended to prosecute William Bearsey as well as Samuel [see cause 562]; however, the commission to examine witnesses issued on 2 June 1636 related only to Samuel. Depositions were taken on Robartes’s behalf by six commissioners, headed by John Carter and Leonard Treis, justices of the peace, on 6 September at William Holmes’s inn in Bodmin. Samuel’s witnesses were subsequently examined by a commission at Lostwithiel 23-25 March 1636/7. Part of Robartes’s case was to disprove Samuel’s claim to gentility. In this he failed, Samuel bringing a range of witnesses to demonstrate that he and his family had long been accounted gentlemen, and also paying for verification of his status by the heralds. Judgement was delivered before Lord Maltravers in Trinity Term (May-June) 1637. Samuel was found guilty and given the hefty fine of 100 marks for damages to 4

Lord Robartes, £10 costs and 100 marks to the king. In November 1637 he petitioned Maltravers for mitigation, citing his poverty and also a letter from the Prince of Wales’s council asking that he be excused for any words he uttered in defence of the prince’s title. Maltravers appears to have excused him the fine to the king and extended the time of payment to Robartes. But he was also ordered to perform his submission on Wednesday 4 April 1638 in the Coinage Hall at Truro, Cornwall, standing bareheaded before the justices assembled for the quarter sessions. He had to ask Robartes’s forgiveness and acknowledge that he was ‘a baron and peere of this realme, and every way much better then myselfe’. In November-December 1638, Dr Eden, acting on Samuel’s behalf, sought further mitigation on the grounds that Robartes had incorrectly challenged Samuel’s gentility.

Documents

Initial proceedings Note: 3/11 (7 Mar 1636) Personal answer: R.19, fo. 10r (Eas 1636)

Plaintiff’s case Letters commissory for the plaintiff: EM3145 (2 Jun 1636) Defence interrogatories: EM3146 (no date) Plaintiff’s depositions: EM3673 (6 Sep 1636)

Sentence / Arbitration Plaintiff sentence: R.19, fo. 30r (Tri 1637) Defendant’s sentence: 10/12/22 (no date) Letter: 3/15 (21 Jun 1637) Defendant’s petition: 3/112 (14 Nov 1637)

Submission Submission: 4/12 (4 Apr 1638) Submission: 4/20 (no date) Miscellaneous note: 4/18 (1638)

Proceedings Undated proceedings: College of Arms MS. ‘Court of Chivalry’ (act book, 1636-8) [pressmark R.R. 68C] (hereafter 68C), fos. 64r-67r (c. Apr 1636) Proceedings before Arundel: 68C, fos. 89r-100r (May 1636) Proceedings before Maltravers: 68C, fos. 74r-83v (7 May 1636) Proceedings before Sir Henry Marten: 68C, fos. 84r-88v (9 May 1636) Proceedings before Maltravers: 68C, fos. 112r-121v (Jun 1636) Proceedings: 68C, fos. 105r-110v (8 Nov 1636) Proceedings before Arundel: 68C, fos. 51r-59r (28 Jan 1637) Proceedings: 68C, fos. 23r-36v (11 Feb 1637) Proceedings: 68C, fos. 14r-20v (16 Feb 1637) Proceedings before Sir Henry Marten: 68C, fos. 11r-12v (24 Feb 1637) 5

Proceedings before Maltravers: 8/29 (18 Nov 1637) Proceedings before Maltravers: R.19, fos. 400v-412v (20 Nov 1638) Proceedings before Maltravers: R.19, fos. 422r-428r (28 Nov 1638) Proceedings before Maltravers: R.19, fos. 474r-484v (5 Dec 1638)

Notes

Initial proceedings

3/11, Note

‘The L. Roberts plaintiff Will Bersey of the parishes of Lanlivery and Lostwithiell in Com Cornwal The L. Roberts plaintiff John Samuel Junior [of the same parishes] John Lo: Roberts Baron of Truro in Com Cornwal Wm Bearsey et John Samuell junior [of the parishes of] Lanlivery [and] Lostwithiell in [the aforementioned county] By Dr Duck’s warrant 7 Marti 1636’.

R.19, fo. 10r, Personal answer

‘The response to the 2 and 3 Articles sayes that he does not believe any the matters therein to be true. To the 4th he sayes that his father Jo. Samuell has been farmer of the Prince’s Parke of Restermell for all the time in the article and many yeares before; and believes that Lord Roberts hath for all that time borne extreme malice to his father and him having now 3 accons at law against him for walking in his grounds; and that 3 of the lord’s servants did in a riotous manner beate and wound one of his father’s servants for refusing to let them have a way through the parke; that complaining to one of the lord’s servants, he answered that his lord would hunt in the parke do what he could, to which [Samuel] replied that if they did without his fathers leave, he would turne them another way or cutt of his horse’s leggs and c.’ Second session, Easter term, 1636. No signature.

Plaintiff’s case

EM3145, Letters commissory for the plaintiff

Addressed to the commissioners Christopher Cater, esq, [sic] Leonard Treis, esq, Francis Courtney, gent, Edward Gros, gent, and also, Thomas Harte, esq, John Cooke, esq, Nevill Bligh, esq, and Henry Vincent, gent, to meet to examine witnesses in a suit concerning scandalous words. 6

Dated 2 June 1636. Signed by Gilbert Dethick, registrar.

EM3146, Defence interrogatories

1-3. What were the words spoken by Samuel, where and when, let the witness relate all the passages of speech? 4. How long had the witness known the two John Samuels, whether they were commonly accounted gentlemen and descended from gentlemen? 5. Whether John Samuel the elder had formerly been for many years farmer of the Prince’s park at Restormel, co. Cornwall? 6. Whether for many years before the libel ‘Lord Robertes hath borne a great malice and hatred’ against the Samuels, and whether Robartes had recently brought three lawsuits against John Samuell jnr for walking in his grounds? Whether in the last 2 or 3 years there had been many quarrels between the Samuels and workmen, agents and servants of Robartes? Whether at Cornwall assizes some of these workmen or servants ‘were not fined and imprisoned at the suite or upon the complaint of John Samuell snr?’ 8. Whether at the time of the libel or before had ‘Lord Roberts ridd into the land belonging to the Prince’s highness and being in the farming and occupacon of John Samuell snr, accompanied with 40, 30 or 20 horsemen more his servants, friends and followers and there hath hunted and spoyled the hedges, and fences and grasse and corne of the lands and grounds? How often he hath soe done and whether such witnesses herd Lord Roberts say in the presence of John Samuel snr and jnr that he should and would soe doe whither they would give him leave or noe?’ No date. No signatures.

EM3673, Plaintiff’s depositions

Taken before commissioners John Carter, Leonard Treis, Francis Courtney, Edward Grosse, John Cooke and Nevill Bligh, commissioners, with John Tregage and John Ward, as notaries, on 6 September 1636 in the house of William Jones of Bodmin. Also mentioned as witnesses William Prust, gent, John Castle, gent, and John Skory, gent and the house of Edward Kestell in Truro.

(Witness 1), William Prust of Bodmin, co. Cornwall, gent, born there, aged 35

To Robartes’s libel: He was in John Edye’s wine cellar in Bodmin about two years ago where a health was drunk to Lord Robartes: ‘the health going round, and coming to John Samuell jnr to be by him pledged, he refused and sayd he had no reason to pledge Lord Roberts his health because Lord Roberts doth not affect mee and I conceive my selfe to be a gent and I care not for him’, and he conceived these words to be spoken ‘in a careles slighting manner’.

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To Samuel’s interrogatories: 4. He had always known the Samuels ‘to be stiled gent and for such… they have been reputed and taken’. 7. He had heard that Robartes had an action of trespass against Samuell jnr and that there was some ‘bickering’ between their servants and that there was ‘business at the assize about the sayd falling out but what the end was there’ he knew not.

(Witness 2), John Kestell of Egloshayle, co. Cornwall, born there, aged 33

To Roberts’s libel: About two years ago he was questioning Samuell ‘howe it came to passe that such difference and distastes were betweene the Lord Roberts and him… in regard of the inequality of their estates’ to which Samuell replied ‘why I am a gent as worth[y] as my lord’.

To Samuel’s interrogatories: 4. He had known Samuell the younger since he was a child and he had ‘alwayes beene accounted gentleman in the place where they lived and elsewhere, and their auncestors have beene accounted gent ever since their coming into this countrey and have matched with good familyes; and one of the family matched with the daughter of Harris of Launceston, Cornwall, who he beleeveth would not have matched his daughter with Samuell unlesse he had been a gent’. His father John Samuell the elder ‘did match with the daughter of Chichester of ?Hatt? in Devon’. 6. About 6 months ago there was a quarrel between Lord Robartes’ servants and one Griffin Maior and ‘that at the assizes held in the last lent there was a hearing before the judge about it’. Signed by the above six commissioners.

(Witness 3), John Scory of Lanlivery, co. Cornwall, aged 35

To Samuel’s interrogatories 4. He had known the Samuells since his childhood, ‘and he heard them to be reputed gent… in those partes where they live and he doth beleeve them so to be… and doth belleve that their auncestores have beene reputed gentlemen’. But he had heard John Samuell the younger affirm that ‘some had reported they were no gent, but he then sayd we are gent and it stoode mee money to search it over from the herraulds, and John Samuell as hee then tould mee had it under the herraulds’ handes’.

(Witness 4), William Rawe of St Cleer, co. Cornwall, gent, born there, aged 27

Did not depose to any of the interrogories

(Witness 5), Anna James of Bodmin, co. Cornwall, spinster, born there, aged 30

To Roberts’s libel: About 12 months ago she was passing by when John Samuell the younger ‘came out of 8

the church of Bodmin in the company of the Lord Lambert and of many other gent whose names [James] knoweth not; and Lord Roberts about the same time came out of the great south door of the church walking downe the churchyard a little before Lord Lambert and John Samuell, and a gentleman whose name she knew not asked John Samuell why he did not putt off his hatt unto my lord to which she heard John Samuell answer ‘what shall I putt off my hatt always, putt aside his wealth and I am as good a man as my lord’, which she believed referred to Robartes.

To Samuel’s interrogatories: 2. The words were spoken on a Saturday ‘when there was a commission at Bodmin betweene Lord Roberts and Lord Lambert’. She also deposed that she had 2d a week from the town of Bodmin for her maintenance for 4 or 5 years and she had received Easter communion for the last 5 or 6 years and ‘she is little or nothing worth’. Signed by the above six commissioners.

(Witness 6), Henry Luke of Kenwyn parish, co. Cornwall, blacksmith, born there, aged 32

To Roberts’s libel: About 2 years ago in June or July he was in Edward Kestle’s house in Truro ‘at dinner in the parlor against the pumpe and sitting at the lower end of the table and John Samuell jnr sitting at the upper end of the table in the company of Mr Mercer who he thinks to be the servant of Mr John Arundell of Trerice’. Samuell and Mercer ‘being jesting and laughing together and often speaking of the Lord Roberts… at last he heard John Samuell drinking unto Mercer to say that he did not care for the Lord Roberts’. 5. He had been talking with John Samuell jnr before the dinner and saw John Samuell and Mercer walking in the room he had menconed and Richard Harris servant to Lord Lambert coming in and going. Luke and Samuell ‘being jesting and laughing with Mercer to talke of furse carriers, but whom he meant by the words [Luke] knoweth not’.

To Samuel’s interrogatories: 2. That there were present at the dinner with Mercer and Samuell, Theophilus Laugherne, Richard Harris, Mr Basby ‘and divers others whom he did not know and concerning what was said… he refers himself to the 2nd and 5th articles of the libel aforesaid’. 3. That ‘he is worth £40 and his debtes payd’. 4. There was a note taken of what he could say in this cause ‘by one Mr Diggings who he hath heard was servant unto Lord Roberts’. Diggings married the daughter of John Tregage and the note was taken between Easter and Whitsun last. This witness signed the note ‘being demaunded so to doe by Diggings’. He believed Mr John Marshall of Truro was either present when he signed the note or in the next room, and that he came into the company of Samuell ‘by the request’ of Richard Harris, servant to Lord Lambert, Richard Harris being his wife’s kinsman and inviting him to dine with him. Signed by Henry Luke.

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(Witness 7), Nicholas Chapman of Lanhydrock, co. Cornwall, gent, aged 23

To Roberts’s libel: 4. About 22 March he met John Samuell at Richard Brooke’s house in Lanhydrock and had ‘some conference’ with John Samuell in which John Samuell asked him whether Lord Roberts ‘had not had a hunting match’. To which he replied he had not had any ‘hunting match, but that Mr Tipper of St Wenne and Mr Code had been thereabouts a hunting’. Whereupon John Samuell said to him ‘that he had heard that the Lord Roberts had lately beene a hunting in his father’s grounds being the dutchy landes whiles John Samuell was working, but had I beene at home as I was not I would have turned him back or else I would have cut of[f] his horse’s legs’. 5. About 5 days later he met John Samuell at Brooke’s house where he told John Samuell he was sorry he had spoken those words of Roberts since Roberts would hear of it. Whereupon Samuell declared ‘I care not if it come to the eares of Lord Roberts for I would have you and all those heere present take notice that I will give you (speaking unto this dep) under my hand in writing and will justifye what I sayd’.

To Samuel’s interrogatories 1. For 3 years he had been a servant to Lord Robartes. 2. At the time and place of the words there were present the first time Brookes, his wife, and Mary his daughter and the second time those three and one Blanch Hickes. 4. He had known the Samuells as long as he could remember, ‘and he hath alwayes heard them to be reputed gentlemen both in those places where they doe live and elsewhere and he doth beleeve that they are gent and he hath never heard otherwise’. 6. He had heard there was a quarrel between William Diggings, Lord Roberts’ servant and his cosen Samuell’s man, Griffin Major. He had heard that one Billing of Bodmin was imprisoned about the falling out with Major. 7. He had seen Robartes hunting ‘in the lands and grounds aforementioned and two or three horsemen at the most in his company following his game which was started without the lands halfe a mile, sometimes a mile and sometimes two’, and he ‘doth not remember that Lord Robartes did at any time start a hare within the lands and grounds’. 3. ‘He is worth 20 nobles his debtes being payd’ Signed by the above six commissioners.

(Witness 8), Richard Pope of St Clement’s parish, co. Cornwall, ostler, aged 32

To Roberts’s libel: About 2 years since the death of the old Lord Robartes about Christmas, passing through the wine seller of Edward Kestell in Truro to fetch a quart of wine for some company in another room, he saw John Samuell drinking in the cellar and he remembers ‘there was a health begun among the company unto Lord Roberts, and John Samuell had a glasse of wine in his hand and… did pledge the health so formerly begunn’ and as he was passing, through he heard John Samuell say ‘that he did not care a fart for the Lord Roberts’. 2. There were present then Mercer, Mr Arundel of Trerice’s servant, ‘and some of the Lord Lambert’s men as they termed themselves’, and 6 or 7 others whose names he did not know. 10

3. He did ‘not know who began the health for Lord Robertes’. 4. He did not know John Samuel before this.

To Samuel’s interrogatories: 1. John … of Insett? gen and William Diggings servant to Lord Roberts ‘inquired of him what he would say concerning this business’. Signed by the above six commissioners.

Sentence / Arbitration

R.19, fo. 30r, Plaintiff’s sentence

‘And having called before us the parties and being assisted by our Councell learned in lawes, we doe (having called upon the name of Christ) pronounce, decree and declare that John Samuell shall putt in caution for his good behaviour during the pleasure of us and this court. And that he pay the sume of 100 markes in the name of a Mulct or paine to the use of the King. And in damages to Lord Roberts 100 marks, and 10 li costs. And to be detained in custody until the performance of this our definitive sentence.’ Third session, Trinity term [May-June], 1637. Signed by Lord Maltravers.

10/12/22, Defendant’s sentence

No date. Entered on behalf of the defendant Samuell, with amount of expenses left blank and no date [although document partly illegible].

3/15, Letter

Council to the Prince of Wales to Lord Maltravers, 21 June 1637

‘Our very good lord, whereas in March 1635 and May 1636 wee directed letters unto the Lord Roberts, touching a weare erected by his lordship on his Majestie’s River of Foy to the prejudice of his Majesty and his farmors of the park of Restormell desiring his lordship to lay open the weare, and that no affronts might be offered to his Majestie’s farmors and servants; and that his lordship would forbeare many frivolous and vexatious suites against John Samuell, gent, farmor of the parke, and his son and servants; for that there was a commission to be executed for the clearing and settling of his Majestie’s right and libertie of fishinge in the river. And whereas we have this daie been informed by John Samuell the younger that the Lord Roberts doth also question him before your lordship for words spoken against his lordship for hunting in the parke and spoylinge his father’s corne there: the words as he alledgeth onlie tending to the maintenance of the Prince’s right of free warren within the parke, which at the request of John Samuell, we 11

have presumed to signifie unto your lordship; desiringe your lordship that he may not suffer for any words spoken by him in maintenance of the Prince his title of free warren there; the same belonging to the Prince’s highness and Lord Roberts having no right to hunt within the parke. And so leaving itt to your lordships consideracon, wee do commit your lordship to Gods protection and remaine. Your lordships verie loving friends Lumley D Canning James B From his Majesty’s Commission Howse in Fleetstreet London 21 June 1637’ [Other signatures missing as corner torn off].

3/112, Defendant’s petition

‘The humble Petition of John Samuell jun gentleman Whereas your petitioner was the last Terme censured by your lordship to pay the Lord Robarts one hundred merkes for damages and tenn pounds for costs and one hundred merkes to the Kings Majestie. Soe it is may it please your lordship that your petitioner having submitted himselfe unto your honor’s censure, and by his humble petition humbly prayed your lordship to mitigate the same, and to give him such reasonable times for payment as to your lordship should seeme meete, your petitioner by the violent prosecution of Lord Robarts was disabled from attending on your lordship for your favour and answeare unto his said petition and thereby inforced to repayre to his friends (who live two hundred miles from this place) not in contempt of such your lordships censure but to try his friends that he might the more speedily have performed the same. In tender consideration of the premises and for that your petitioner being a younger brother and not able to satisfie the one halfe of the damages to the Lord Robarts. And his father much debilitated by the multiplicitie of accons and suites prosecuted against him and your petitioner, for their zeale in preserving and mainteyninge the rites and titles of the Prince’s highness, as by a letter from the Prince’s Counsell and the most part of the depositions taken in the cause hath appeared. May it therefore please your lordship to take off and remitt the fine to his Majestie and to mitigate that to the Lo. Robarts and to give your petitioner time until Trinitie Terme next to pay the one halfe of the same, and until Michaelmas Terme next for the payment of the other halfe thereof for which your petitioner will within tenn dayes give good securitie if he may have libertie to doe the same, and to remitt his submission which yet your lordship hath reserved to your further determination whereby your lordship will save your petitioner from certaine ruyne which otherwise will inevitably fall upon him. And he shall pray andc.’ [In different hand] ‘Let security be taken of the petitioner for payment of one moiety of the Lo. Roberts’. [Overleaf] ‘Arundell House November 14. 1637 12

Let securitie bee taken of the petitioner for the payment to the Lo: Roberts of one moietie of the costs and damages decreed unto him in this cause, at, or before the middle of Easter tearme next, and of the other moitie thereof by the middle of Trintite tearme then next followinge, and likewise for the performing of a submission according to the decree’. Signed by Maltravers.

Submission

4/12, Submission

Wed 4 April 1638 In the Coynage Hall in Truro Cornwall before the Justices of the Peace assembled for the quarter sessions, standing bareheaded – for saying ‘that my father was as good a man as Lord Roberts and that setting aside his honor I was as good a gent as Lord Roberts and as well or better borne then he or to that effect - and to acknowledge ‘Lord Roberts to be a baron and peere of this realme and every way much better then myselfe’. [A note to the effect that Lord Robartes had alleged that ‘Samuell was no gentleman but a plebeian or to that effect and undertooke to prove it and fayled in the proofe’ – proved instead that Samuell ‘was and is a gent borne and of an auncient familie bearing armes and the heire of Samuell of Llandivery, Cornwall, esq’].

4/20, and copy at 4/23, Submission

[Note in margin] ‘This was never approved so not done but another after drawne’ ‘Whereas I John Samuel… stand convict to have used offensive and disgracefull wordes and speeches tending to the dishonour of the right honourable John Lord Roberts Baron of Truro and in particular to have said that my father was as good a man as Lord Roberts and that setting and that setting aside his honour I was as good a gent as the Lord Roberts and as well or better born then he, or to that effect, I do hereby confess and acknowledge that I am hartily sorry for my indiscreet uttering of the words and do further acknowledge the right honourable Lord Roberts to be a Baron and Peere of this realme and every way much better than myself. And I do humbly pray his honour to forgive my such unadvised speech and do promise to behave myselfe ever hereafter with all due respect to his honour and all other the nobility and gentry of this kingdome.’ No date.

4/18, Miscellaneous note

1638 ‘Lord Roberts within 1, 2 or 3 or 4 yeares last past put in a libel against Samuel in his court, wherein he alledged that Samuell was no gentleman, but a plebeian or to that effect and undertooke to prove it and fayled in the proofe of, the cause being sentenced long 13

since, vizt appearing by the acts and process in the court that Samuell was and is a gentleman borne, and of an ancient family bearing arms that he is son and heir to [space left blank] Samuell of Llanlivery, Com Cornwall esq.’

Summary of proceedings

Dr Duck acted as counsel for Robartes and Dr Eden for Samuel. In April 1636 Samuel was warned to appear when next stipulated and bound for the sum of £100. Dr Duck gave the libel on 7 May and Samuel was to respond on 9 May. In June a commission headed by John Carter and Leonard Treis, esq, was instructed to take examinations of Lord Robartes’s witnesses from 5 to 7 September 1636. On 28 January 1636/7, Dr Duck had to prove the libel and on 11 February Dr Eden gave material for the defence. On 16 February Dr Duck was to publish the depositions of Lord Robartes’s witnesses. On 24 February Dr Ryves related material for the defence and the commissioners for taking the depositions of Samuel’s witnesses were instructed to meet from 23 to 25 March 1637 at Thomas Bennett’s in Lostwithiel, co. Cornwall. Setence was given against Samuel in Trinity term 1637, but Dr Duck was seeking a hearing on this in November 1637. On 20 November 1638 Dr Eden sought a mitigation of the fine and on 5 December the verdict was heard on Dr Eden’s petition that Lord Robartes was incorrect in denying Samuel’s gentility.

Notes

John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes of Truro was the son of Richard Robartes, 1st Baron Robartes of Truro and Frances, daughter of John Hender of Boscastle, co. Cornwall. He became a close associate of the earl of Essex and a parliamentarian commander in the civil war until obliged to resign by the Self-Denying Ordinance in April 1645. Active in the Convention Parliament of 1660, in 1663 he was appointed commissioner for executing the office of Earl Marshal, and temporarily served as Speaker of the House of Lords. In 1679 he was created Viscount Bodmin and Earl of Radnor. John, Lord Robartes was mentioned as married to Lucy, daughter of the earl of Warwick in the 1620 Visitation of Cornwall. John Samuell the younger of Lanlivery was probably the John Samuell mentioned as the second son of John Samuel of Restormel, co. Cornwall, and aged 7 in 1620.

A. Duffin, ‘John Robartes, 1st earl of Radnor’, Oxford DNB (Oxford, 2004); G. E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage (London, 1949), vol. 11, p. 36; J. L. Vivian and H. H. Drake (eds.), The Visitation of Cornwall in the year 1620 (Publications of the Harleian Society, 9, 1874), pp. 186, 196.