John Tregonwell

He was born in Cornwall, the second son of his family. He was educated at Oxford, at first at Broadgates Hall. He proceeded B.C.L. on 30 June 1516, and D.C.L. on 23 June 1522. He became, before he quit Oxford, principal of Vine Hall.

Moving to London, Tregonwell began to practise in the court of admiralty, of which he became before 1535 principal judge or commissary-general. Henry VIII employed him on government affairs; he carried out his master's wishes smoothly and with a careful regard to the forms of law. He was a privy councillor as early as 1532. He was a proctor for the king in the divorce case. He took part in diplomatic negotiations in the Netherlands in May 1532, John Hackett and Dr. W. Knight being his University in 1535; otherwise his work lay mainly in the south and west of England. He was also employed in the proceedings against the prisoners taken in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and he was important enough for Cromwell to talk about him as a possible Master of the Rolls. He became a master in chancery in 1539, was chancellor of Wells Cathedral from 1541 to January 1543, a commissioner in chancery in 1544, and a commissioner of the great seal in 1550.

He was knighted on 2 October 1553, and was favoured by Queen Mary in spite of his history. He was Member of Parliament for Scarborough in the parliament of October 1553, and, though he held a prebend, there was no question of objecting to his return, doubtless because he was a layman. Alexander Nowell was ejected from parliament, and Tregonwell was one of the committee which sat to consider his case. In 1555 he was a commissioner on imprisoned preachers.

He had married, first, a wife named Elizabeth Bruce, by whom he had, with other children, Thomas, who died during his father's lifetime, and who was the father of John Tregonwell, who succeeded to Sir John's property; secondly, Elizabeth Martin (nee Kellaway), the widow of Robert Martin of Athelhampton, by whom he had no children and who was buried on 17 January 1582. His daughter Anne married Richard Reade, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Another daughter Mary married a Mr. Delahyde.

He died on 8 or 13 January 1565 at Milton Abbas, Dorset, for which, after the dissolution, he had paid £1,000, and was buried in the north aisle under an altar tomb.

Following John Tregonwell's death, there was a lot of grief between Elizabeth Tregonwell (nee Kellaway) and her step-grandson John Tregonwell (son of Elizabeth Bruce's son Thomas), including a fight over a barn leaving one of her step-grandson's men dead and another pinned to the wall by a sheaf of arrows.[1] Elizabeth was also found to be hosting a young Roman Catholic called Thomas Sherwood. Her own son by her first marriage, George Martin, turned in Sherwood. This led to Sherwood's execution in 1579 and Elizabeth Tregonwell's examination for recusancy in 1580.[2] She got off lightly, merely needing to pay maintenance on Milton Abbey Church.[3] Elizabeth's recusancy charges must have stood in stark contrast to her husband's reputation as a leading figure in implementing and profiting from the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Tregonwell, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.