291 



CORNISH LANDOWNERS WHO HELP 15 LIBRATES OF LAND 



OR MORE BY MILITARY SERVICE, AND WERE NOT KNIGHTS, 



HENRY III, 1256. 



By the Late WILLIAM SINCOOK. 



Introduction. 



Lysons, in his account of the principal Cornish landowners, 

 says of this record (1255): ''It includes all those who were 

 possessed of fifteen librates of land, or more, and held by knight 

 service." This is clearly erroneous, for the list of 13 names, is 

 only of those qualified to take up knighthood, who had neglected 

 to do so. Nor can they be rightly described illustrious men, as 

 Sir John Maclean designates them in his history of the Manor of 

 Hamatethy. Witti films Roherti is supposed by him to be William 

 Peverel, who gave the church of St. Brewerd to the Priory of 

 Tywardreath. Apart from other considerations, showing the im- 

 probability of such being the case, it is notorious that the Peverel 

 family were proud of their surname, and always used it. 



The record is addressed to the king — " Illustria viro, Domino 

 Henrico, Sfc.,''^ {vide Oarew's Survey of Cornwall,) and was a 

 return made by the Sheriff of those who held in Cornwall fifteen 

 librates of land or more by military service, and were not 

 knights. 



The possession of a stated income from land at this time 

 entitled to knighthood, and freeholders so qualified were com- 

 pelled to become knights under penalty of a fine. A proclamation 

 was issued that whoever had £15 and above in land, "should 

 be dight in his armes " and endowed with knighthood, or be 

 fined, " to the end that England, as well as Italie, might be 

 strengthened with chivalry." Those knights in virtue of pro- 

 perty, simply called milites, held a very different position from the 

 milites glaiio cinesi or knights whom the king had created by 

 cincture of sword and belt. 



Although only 13 names of the gentry of the county appear 

 in this record, it is of great interest, as most of them can be 

 distinctly traced to their respective families ; and their descendants, 

 in some cases, are still to be found among us. 



