QUINT, John, of Lostwithiel, Cornw.

The Quints had lived in Lostwithiel for more than a century before John’s time. In 1291 Edmund, earl of Cornwall, had bought the title of Michael Quint to the land in the town on which the earl’s great hall, the stannary prison, and the quay between the hall and the river were already standing. Michael, who also held property nearby in Penkneth, sat in Parliament for the borough in 1322. His son, Serle, who twice served as mayor, held 11 burgages in the town as well as land on the manor of Penlyne as a tenant of the duchy of Cornwall. Another member of the family, Thomas, possessed 18 burgages in Lostwithiel, and, together with William Pasford (and by grant of Edward II), farmed the offices of weigher of tin and custodian of the tinner’s gaol, along with the buildings known as the ‘Blowinghous’ and ‘Weyhynghous’ in Lostwithiel in which tin brought for coinage was smelted and weighed.C. Henderson, Essays, 47; Reg. Black Prince i. 25, 80, 84;C241/173/49; J. Hatcher, Rural Economy Duchy of Cornw. 239, 244; CFR, iv. 242; C143/185/6; SC6/817/8; Caption of Seisin (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. n.s. xvii), 36, 135-6; Cornw. Feet of Fines (ibid. 1914), 442.

John Quint carried on the family interest in the tin trade, and is recorded in September 1385 bringing into Lostwithiel some 3,000 lbs. of metal to be coined. The size of his consignments, however, was eclipsed by those of his kinsman, Roger Quint, who was a tin merchant on a much grander scale and officiated as mayor of Lostwithiel in 1394-6, 1409-11 and 1420-1. It is interesting to note that John’s only known election to Parliament occurred during one of his kinsman’s mayoralties.E101/263/19, 21, 26, 264/1; C241/184/16, 61, 185/17, 54, 202/63, 203/11, 12, 214/26, 228/78; HMC Var. i. 336. He himself is only known to have been elected mayor once. However, he took an active interest in local affairs, and often appeared as a juror at borough courts. At the parliamentary elections held during his mayoralty in 1391, he stood surety for Simon Lowys, a lawyer from Liskeard who had been chosen as one of the Lostwithiel representatives. It was in the same year that he stood bail for John Curteys II, his predecessor as mayor, who had been accused of theft in the court of admiralty. At the elections of 1406 he provided securities for the appearance in Parliament of both of Lostwithiel’s Members, the same John Curteys and Gregory Aure. In 1408 and 1412 John and Roger Quint were together accused at the Launceston assizes of wrongfully ousting Thomas Paderda from property in Lostwithiel.SC2/161/6, 7; C219/9/8, 10/3; Sel. Pleas Ct. Admiralty (Selden Soc. vi), i. 151; JUST 1/1519 m. 93d, 1522 m. 7. John is not recorded thereafter.