PAEIilAMENTART HISTORY OF TRURO. 249 



quietly to such lawless proceedings ; with a resolution and 

 courage, remarkable in those days when so much power was 

 vested in the Crown, he resisted the King's demands, and 

 appealed to the verdict of a jury. After repeated delays and 

 postponements, a jury was empanelled at Launceston, consisting 

 of county gentlemen, who were supposed to know the history of 

 the family, with the result that Borlas proved his case in every 

 particular. His family was shown by evidence to have held the 

 estate " a tempore quo non exstat memoria," and a title to it was 

 established which continued it in the family for three centuries 

 following. (" Genealogist," ii (n.s.) 1885). He died in or about 

 the year 1414. 



In the parliaments of 1396 and 1417 John Megra sat for 

 Truro; his will, dated 6th Aug., 1419, is interesting as being 

 one of the oldest Cornish wills extant. It was published in the 

 " Western Antiquary " in 1882, and the following were some of 

 its provisions : "I, John Megre, citizen and pewterer of London. 

 My tenements in Wolnoth and Lombard Street, to be disposed 

 of according to the discretion of my executors. A legacy for an 

 honest chaplain to celebrate divinia for my soul, and the souls of 

 others, in St. Mary Church, Trewrewe, in Cornwall, for seven 

 years." In addition to bequests to his wife, Emma, and to his 

 daughters, Margaret and Luce, he left legacies to the Church of 

 St. Kelnewyn (Kenwyn), to every poor bed-lier in Truro and 

 Kenelwyn, to the blind, etc., in St. Kea, to John NichoUs of 

 Trewrowe his kinsman, to John Nicholls the elder, 13s. 4d., 

 to William NichoUs, the brother, 13s. 4d., and to Philip 

 Taylor of Trewrew, 13s. 4d., besides others to various institutions 

 and persons in other parts of the county. Both his daughters 

 married ; Margaret became the wife of James Nanfan, and had 

 issue two daughers Jane and Beatrix, each of whom received a 

 legacy of 100 marks. Luce married John Archedekne, and had 

 four children, John, William, Matilda, and Isabell ; the latter 

 two of whom, like their cousins, received 100 marks each as a 

 marriage settlement. The executors were Thomas Knollys, of 

 London, grocer (Lord Mayor in 1410), who built Eochester 

 Bridge, and London Guildhall ; James Nanfan, and John 

 Archedekne, his sons-in-law. Nanfan was returned for Truro to 

 the parliament which met at Leicester in 1425, 



