STONE, John (d.1630), of Bodmin, Cornw.

Stone may have been distantly related to a minor gentry family of that name who lived at St. Minver, Cornwall, but his immediate background is obscure. His putative father was recorded in Bodmin during the 1560s and 1570s, but Stone himself cannot be firmly identified there until 1594, when he received one of the town’s highest subsidy tax assessments. A merchant, he served three consecutive terms as mayor of Bodmin between 1600 and 1603, and such prominence made him an obvious candidate to represent the borough in Parliament in 1604. Maclean, i. 312; E179/88/232, 253; Cornw. RO, FP13/1/1. The only contribution which Stone definitely made to the Common’s proceedings was on 22 May that year, when he and his fellow Bodmin Member Nicholas Sprey were granted almost a month’s leave of absence, presumably to attend to borough affairs. In addition, on 20 June 1607 the House ordered either him or the Bath MP Christopher Stone to halt a lawsuit that he had brought in Common Pleas. CJ, i. 977b; Lansd. 486, f. 125v. Still a capital burgess of Bodmin in 1620, Stone may have transferred his assets to his eldest son William before his death, since he ceased to appear in the district’s taxation records. He was buried in the parish church in January 1630. Neither a will nor letters of administration have been found.