TROTT, John

The first Trott known to have sat in the Commons, John began a family tradition of parliamentary service which was continued by at least three successive generations in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.1 HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 876-7; The Commons 1509-58, iii. 486. The MP must probably be distinguished from the John Trott who jointly with his wife Emma was among the defendants in a suit over property in Riddlecombe in Ashreigney, Devon, in 1433: C254/141/25. Few details of his career, which appears to have been a local one, have come to light. It may have been he who, styled a mere ‘husbandman’ of Bodmin, and along with several probable kinsfolk, was in dispute with one Walter Joderell in 1418.2 CP40/629, rot. 339d. Otherwise, he appears to have played a modest part in public life, occasionally serving on local juries, and providing sureties for the attendance in Parliament of three of Bodmin’s representatives in 1419 and 1429, John Trewoofe†, William Penfoun* and Walter Moyle*.3 CIPM, xxiii. 98; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, iii. 242; C219/14/1. It is possible that Trott’s personal affairs were what motivated him to seek election to Parliament in 1435, for just a few days before the Commons were due to assemble he appeared in the court of King’s bench to stand bail for a kinsman.4 KB27/698, rex rot. 1. Otherwise little is known of Trott who is last heard of as one of the jurors at the inquisition post mortem of Thomas Cheddar at Bodmin in June 1443.5 CIPM, xxvi. 116. On chronological grounds, it was probably one of several younger namesakes who was active in Cornwall in the service of Alfred Cornburgh†, the escheator of the duchy in the years around 1470.6 Cornw. RO, Launceston bor. recs., B/Laus/158; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 237; C140/22/48, m. 3. Possible candidates include a Hertfordshire man from Stortford and a man with property at Bodmin and Otterham who lived into Hen. VII’s reign: CAD, i. A1062-3; iii. A5113; C1/364/60, 61; 365/9.