LANGHARNE, William.

It is not known whether Langharne can be identified with the man who died 27 Dec. 1631, and whose inquisition post mortem was taken at Horncastle, Lincolnshire on 1 May 1632, when he was described as ‘late of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, gent.’C142/489/101; Vis. Herts. (Harl. Soc. xxii). 78. He may instead have belonged to the Cornish family of Langharne or Langhern of Tregavethan and St. Erme. A William Langherne was a member of Barnard’s Inn c.1585.Vis. Cornw. (Harl. Soc. ix), 122-3; D. Gilbert, Paroch, Hist. Cornw. i. 400; ii. 316-17; Lansd. 47, ff. 118-19.

Whatever his background, by April 1585 he was Sir Walter Ralegh’s secretary, reported to be concerned in a plot to rescue Mary Queen of Scots from Tutbury, when he was described to her, probably falsely, as a good Catholic, willing to do her service, and particularly useful because of his master’s friendship with her gaoler (Sir) Amias Paulet.CSP Scot. ed. Thorpe, ii. 986; HMC Hatfield, iii. 97. As lord lieutenant of Cornwall and warden of the stannaries Ralegh was clearly in a position to engineer Langharne’s return at St. Germans.