Commons 1386-1421

He has been distinguished from John Penrose of Escalls in Sennen, Cornw., who served as c.j. of the justiciars’ bench, Ireland, 1385-6, j.KB England Jan. 1391-c. May 1394, and justiciar of S. Wales May 1392-July 1393, leading at the same time an extraordinary career of crime, well documented from 1371 until his removal from the bench: Sel. Cases King’s Bench (Selden Soc. lxxxviii), pp. xii-xiii, 77-80. The judge m. (1) by 1371, Joan (d.c.1391), da. of Richard Carnver; ?(2) by 1395, Constance. He held estates in west Cornw. (near Helston and Lands’ End) and property in Surr. and London. He was still alive in 1407 but seems to have died before Easter 1411, when William Penrose was described as his son and heir (KB27/604 m. 6d). Another son, also named John, eventually became heir to his estates but he is unlikely to have been MP for Liskeard, for he was ‘fatuus’ from his birth (C139/127/28). The pedigrees given in Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 365, 366, are confused, and it is quite possible that John Penrose of Methleigh was a kinsman of the judge.