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NOTE ON Sir HENRY DE BODRUGAN, 

 Br H. MICHBLL WHITLEY, F.G.S., Hon. Sec. 



Amongst the EoUs of Parliament for the year 1475, are 

 some entries, which throw much light on the stormy state of 

 life in Cornwall during the middle ages. 



At this time there lived at Bodrugan in 8. Goran in great 

 affluence and splendour. Sir Henry Bodrugan, who tradition 

 says, was attainted for supporting the cause of Richard III at 

 Bosworth, and fled into Cornwall. Here hotly pursued by his 

 enemies, on a piece of coarse moorland called the Woeful Moor 

 he made his last stand, and at last overpowered fled to the cliff 

 and took a desperate leap over the precipice, but alighting 

 safely on a little grass plot a hundred feet below, he was 

 rescued in a boat by some of his tenantry, and turning towards 

 the land he uttered a curse on his inveterate pursuers. 



The Castle of Bodrugan which was destroyed in 1786, is 

 stated by Borlase to have been one of the finest in the County 

 for magnificence, he describes a chapel, converted into a barn, 

 the large hall, and an ancient kitchen with a timber roof. 



" This worthy but unfortunate man " as C. S. G-ilbert calls 

 him, appears however in another light in the document referred 

 to, being rather a trouble to his neighbours; for in 1475, 

 John Arundell of Talvern, John Penpouse, William Carnsuyowe, 

 and Otys Phillipp, yoman of the crown, complained to the King 

 that Henry Bodrugan, otherwise Trenowith of Bodrugan, was 

 guilty of murders, robberies by sea and land, and almost every 

 other crime, so that no strange merchant dare resort to Cornwall ; 

 or any of the Cornish Merchants dare resort to parts beyond the 

 sea : so that the trade of the County is utterly ruined. 



Amongst other of his misdeeds, on the Vigil of the Holy 

 Trinity, 1475, he victualled and manned two Karvels, one called 

 the Mary Bodrugan, and the other the Barberye, of Powey; 

 which fell in with a Karvel of 50 tons, of Brittany, which they 

 chased into the harbour of St. Tye, and there murdered the 



