PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF TRURO. 245 



taxing the burgesses. Hence Hals complains that many of the 

 boroughs of Cornwall " found that profitable and expedient (as 

 many others) of making country gentlemen free of their town, 

 who bear the burden and heat of the day for them, and many 

 times, for the honour of their corporations, distress their 

 paternal estates, to exalt the reputation, and perpetuate the 

 privileges of a petty Society, made up of mechanics, tradesmen, 

 and inferior practitioners of the law." The government, 

 considering these disabilities, and the remoteness of the county 

 from London, seems to have relaxed the rule to some extent, for 

 many instances occur in which the same individual is returned 

 as representing two or more constituencies in the same 

 parliament. Thus we find le Taylor representing Helston and 

 Truro in the parliament of 1297 ; John Hameley sitting for the 

 county, Launceston, Lostwithiel, and Truro in the parliament of 

 1357 ; John de Tremayne for Helston and Truro in 1364 ; and 

 in 1379, Henry Chinhals for both Lostwithiel and Truro. The 

 imperfection of the records is doubtless responsible for many of 

 these returns ; but we think that in many instances, they are 

 due to the indulgence of the government. 



Sir John de Triagu, of Fentongollen, represented Truro in 

 1304. Apparently, this was the first of a number of public 

 offices which he filled with great credit to himself, and with 

 considerable advantage to the county. He was appointed 

 Steward to the Bishop in Cornwall in 1308, and again in 1309. 

 was a member of a Commission " to inquire into the trans- 

 gressions of the taxors in Devonshire," in 1318 ; in 1323 and 

 1325 he was high sheriff of the county ; and in 1327 was elected 

 a Knight of the shire. But perhaps the work with which his 

 name is most closely associated, is in connection with the church 

 of St. Michael Penkevel, of which he was patron. About the 

 year 1319, and with the approval of the Bishop, he undertook 

 to put the edifice into perfect repair, which it evidently needed, 

 although it had been built no longer than about fifty years, and 

 also to found a Chantry within it for four chaplains. The Bishop 

 on his part erected the church into a Collegiate one, and the 

 chief of the four clergymen into an Arch-priest. It was also 

 arranged that perpetual prayers should be offered for Sir John 

 and Joan, his wife ; for his parents, John and Agnes ; for 



