248 PARLIAMENTAEY HISTOKY OF TRURO. 



In 1 392, Eicliard II met Hs parliament at Wincliester, and 

 one of the burgesses for Truro was Robert Bloyow, whose 

 ancestor Blohinus, accompanied William the Norman to England 

 in 1066 ; he is mentioned in Domesday as holding the manors 

 of Trefrioc, Deliav, Duvenant, Treveheret, and Treuthal of the 

 Earl of Mortain. For many generations this family was one of 

 the most influential in Cornwall ; several of its members held 

 prominent positions in the church, and others were recognised 

 as military, as well as political leaders of the people. The male 

 line became extinct in the fourteenth century ; Robert must 

 therefore have been one of its last male representatives. 



To the next parliament Truro sent Andrew Borlas, son of 

 Noel Borlas, and an ancestor of the Borlases of Pendeen. He 

 was a merchant engaged in trade in the seaports of Cornwall 

 and elsewhere, and had property in Fowey, Penryn, and 

 doubtless in Truro also. On many occasions he appears in the 

 character of an attorney, as in the action which Thomas Arfos 

 brought against Thomas Cary of Tregony, and Odo his son, 

 who, " with force of arms broke into the house of Arfos at 

 Tregony, insulted, beat, wounded, and maltreated him, and 

 inflicted other enormities upon him, much to his hurt and to the 

 disturbance of the peace of the realm." His knowledge of law, 

 and his influence as a merchant, made him a very desirable 

 representative of the town. But his parliamentary honours 

 brought a crowd of vexatious consequences in their train. The 

 king, Richard II, ever in want of money, resorted to most 

 questionable and tyrannical expedients to replenish his coffers ; 

 one of his favourite devices was to challenge titles to property, 

 in order that warrants of permission to hold the lands in security 

 might be purchased. Borlas had not long been in parliament 

 before he was selected as a victim of the King's rapacity ; 

 probably his prosperous circumstances, coupled with a certain 

 independence of speech in parliament, induced the King to 

 question his right to the paternal estate of Borlas Frank, in the 

 parish of St. Wenn. He and his famUy were charged with 

 being aliens, and Richard was determined to secure from him a 

 large sum of money, before granting him the privileges of an 

 Englishman. But Andrew Borlas was not the man to submit 



