VIVIAN, Adam

More may be added to the earlier biography. The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 720-1.

In 1418 Vivian quarrelled with John Trewint*, but the cause of their dispute, which was submitted to the arbitration of Sir John Arundell I* of Lanherne, is obscure, as are the details of Arundell’s award. CP40/635, rot. 321.

The respect in which Vivian was held by his neighbours in spite of his unlawful dealings is attested by his inclusion on Christmas day 1401 among the witnesses to a property settlement between members of the Moyle family (kinsfolk of the Trenewiths of Earth) alongside the prominent lawyer Richard Respryn†. Cornw. RO, Arundell mss, AR1/381. In the light of his regular appearances at Westminster and elsewhere as a surety for men from the south-east of England, as well as those from Cornwall, it is possible that Vivian was a practicing lawyer. E159/205, recorda Hil. rot. 2d; 207, recorda Mich. rot. 1; KB27/651, rex rot. 15; 662, rex rot. 11d. A professional connexion would also seem the most likely background to the debt of £6 for which he was said to have sealed a bond to the chief prothonotary of common pleas, John Wydeslade*, in July 1427 in the legal district of the parish of St. Andrew Holborn, London. CP40/669, rot. 12; 670, rots. 121d, 134.

On other occasions, Vivian found himself before the King’s courts on charges of not paying his bills to two London cloth traders, the mercer Nicholas Drayton and the draper Benedict Harlewyn. The outcome of the dispute with Drayton is unknown, but in the case of Harlewyn Vivian claimed that his opponent had forced him to seal a bond for 73s. 4d. under duress while keeping him imprisoned at Bodmin. CP40/673, rot. 107; 679, rot. 522. There has to be some doubt as to the extent to which Vivian himself had mended his ways, for even in October 1429 he was once again bound over to keep the peace before the justices of King’s bench. KB27/674, rex rot. 2.

Vivian’s widow was entrusted with the execution of his will, and was for some years after his death occupied by the settlement of her former husband’s affairs. CP40/716, rot. 154; 717, rot. 84d. His son Odo followed in his father’s lawless footsteps and became a partner in the criminal activities of the notorious Richard Tregoose*. H. Kleineke, ‘Why the West was Wild’, in The Fifteenth Cent. III ed. Clark, 82, 85, 87, 88.