PENROSE, John, of Methleigh in Breage, Cornw.

Methleigh is situated in west Cornwall, near Helston, and although Penrose is known to have held lands elsewhere in the county none of the premises traced was situated either in or near Liskeard.Feudal Aids, i. 226; Add. Ch. 15352; Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1950), 918. He may, however, have had something to do with the administration of the duchy of Cornwall, of which Liskeard formed a part, for in 1401, in association with Thomas Colyn and John Skewys, he entered into recognizances for £24 with Prince Henry of Monmouth, newly created duke of Cornwall. Other notices of Penrose in the Chancery rolls, as a witness to deeds in Cornwall and as a surety for Cornish litigants, reveal nothing of interest about his career. But it is worth noting that in the Hilary and Easter terms of 1411 he was engaged in suits in the King’s bench against one James Wilcok and his kinsmen for breaking into his property at ‘Penrosvyen’ and ‘Penroswarther’ some ten years previously. They in their turn accused him of causing damage to their property at ‘Launereth’, and it is quite likely that legal proceedings were still going on at the time of his election to Parliament at the end of the year.CCR, 1399-1402, p. 398; 1402-5, p. 316; 1405-9, p. 90; KB27/599 mm. 59d, 63d, 600 m. 61.

In February 1414, as John Penrose ‘of Methleigh, esquire’, he became indebted in the sum of £20 at the Staple of Westminster to a Cornish merchant and Robert Coventry, citizen and mercer of London. Three years later, after he had failed to repay the money according to the bond, a precept was sent to the sheriff of Cornwall ordering his arrest and the confiscation of some of his property. An extent taken subsequently valued Penrose’s 15 messuages and 500 acres of land at no more than £1 12s.8d. What became of him afterwards is not clear.C131/59/23. It was probably another John Penrose of Methleigh who represented Truro in 1435 and Helston in 1442 and was active as late as 1458 (CAD, iv. A9931).