THE GREAT FAMILIES OF CORNWALL: The Arundells

Arundell of Lanherne. —

The origin of this family is very incorrectly stated in the peerages, and with great confusion of erroneous dates; nor have we been able to explain it very satisfactorily by any pedigrees to which we have had access.

Some accounts make the founder of the Lanherne family marry the heiress of Lanherne, who had married the heiress of Pincerna; others make Arundell and Umphraville marry coheiresses of Pincerna.

None of the heraldic writers, who have treated of this family, seem to have been aware that they came from YewtonArundell in Devonshire, which continued to be the property of the Arundells of Lanherne, till about the year 1600. Sir William Pole tells us, that Ralph Arundell was of Yewton as early as the reign of King Stephen.

The earliest intimation we have of the Arundells in Cornwall from public records is in 1346, at which time it appears that John Arundell held the manors of Treloy and Trembleth.

One of the Arundells (probably Sir Ralph, who was sheriff of the county in 1260) had long before this married the heiress of Trembleigh or Trembleth in St. Ervan, and this we believe was the origin of their settling in Cornwall.

Nearly contemporary was Sir Renfrey Arundell, of whom we have intimation in a pedigree of the Roscarrocks, which Sir Renfrey is said to have married the heiress of Treffry (supposed of Treffry in Linkinhorne), and to have had a son, Lawrence Arundell of Blayboll (probably Blable in St. Issey), whose daughter and heir married Roscarrock.

It appears that in 1346 John de Umphraville held Lanherne in right of Alice his wife, which Alice, no doubt, was the heiress either of Lanherne or Pincerna, for it appears to have been the same family (fn. n1).

If the pedigree as given by Sir William Pole be correct (as in most particulars it appears to be, though we suspect that a link or two have been lost), it seems probable that John de Umphraville married the widow of Sir Renfrey, and thus held Lanherne jure uxoris (fn. n2).

The name of John does not occur in Sir William Pole's pedigree, but it is certain that in 1346 he possessed Trembleth, the original Cornish seat of the family, and that either he or his heirs soon afterwards became possessed of Lanherne, and removed thither their residence. From the Lanherne stock branched out the Arundells, who were of Tremoderet in Duloe in the fifteenth century; those of Tolverne in Filleigh; those of Trevithick in St. Columb; and those of Wardour-Castle in Wiltshire.

The ancestor of the last mentioned family, Sir Thomas Arundell, a younger son of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, married Margaret, daughter and coheir of Lord Edward, and sister of Queen Catherine Howard. The Lanherne Arundells became extinct, in the year 1701, by the death of Sir John Arundell, who settled his estates on Richard Bealing, Esq., his daughter's son, on condition of his taking the name of Arundell. The sole heiress of this Richard was married, in 1739, to Henry Lord Arundell (fn. n3), of Wardour, in consequence of which match the present Lord Arundell is representative of the elder as well as of one of the younger branches of Arundell of Lanherne. This family married heiresses of Trembleth, Pincerna or Lanherne, Le Sore, Luscot (fn. n4), Lambourn, and Tresithney, and coheiresses of Carminow, Chidiock, and Dinham.

Arms of Arundell, anciently of Yewton-Arundell in Devonshire, and afterwards of Lanherne: — Sab. six swallows Argent, three, two, one. — Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, in the reign of Edward III., bore a lion passant between the swallows, as appears by his seal appendant to a deed of that date.

The Arundells of Tolverne in Filleigh, settled there in consequence of the match with Le Sore or Soor in the reign of Richard II., and continued for many descents, having married the coheiresses of Archdekne, Courtenay, Earl of Devon, Penpons, and St. Aubyn. In or about the reign of Charles I., they removed to Trevarnoe and Truthall in Sithney, and were also of Methleigh in Breage, which was sold by John Arundell, Esq. in the early part of the last century. This John, who died in 1718, left a sole heiress married to William Jago, Esq., ancestor of Thomas Jago, Esq., of Launceston (fn. n5). His younger brother continued the male line, and resided at Marazion. The last of this family, by whose death the name of the Lanherne Arundells expired in Cornwall, was Mr. John Arundell, who died in 1766, being the collector of the customs at the port of Falmouth: his sisters married St. Aubyn of Plymouth, Powell, and Robinson. The Arundells, who were of Tremoderet in Duloe in the fifteenth century, were descended from Sir Renfrey, a younger son of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne (by the heiress of Lambourn), which Sir Renfrey married the heiress of Coleshill of Tremoderet. This family (of which was John Arundell, Bishop of Exeter) became extinct after three descents, by the death of Sir Edmund Arundell. Some pedigrees represent Elizabeth, the aunt and only heir, as married to Whittington, and afterwards to Stradling: others, more correctly, represent two coheiresses married to Whittington and Stradling. Sir John St. Aubyn is descended from the Whittingtons.

The Arundells of Trevithick in St. Columb, a younger branch of the Lanherne family, settled there in or about the reign of Edward VI., and became extinct about the year 1740. The heiress married Rawe of Endellion: Richard Rawe, Esq. is the representative of this branch of the Arundell family.

A younger branch of the Arundells of Trevithick, was of Carvynick in St. Enoder. The sole heiress of this branch married a younger son of the Tanners of Comb in Brannell, from two of whose coheiresses are descended the Rev. Thomas Penwarne of St. Germans, and Richard Taunton, M.D., of Truro.

A younger branch of the Arundells descended from Thomas, a younger son of Sir John Arundell, and Anne Moyle, settled at Clifton in Landulph, about the year 1500, and became extinct about 1620. The coheiresses married Killigrew and Lower.

John Arundell of Trerice, who lived in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, had, by his first wife, the heiress of Coswarth, four daughters, married to Carew of Anthony, Somaster, Coswarth, and Dinham.

Thomas, a younger brother of John Arundell, the brave defender of Pendennis Castle, settled at Tremoderet in Duloe (which, at a former period, had been the seat of a younger branch of the Lanherne Arundells), in the reign of Charles I. This branch of the Arundells became extinct in the early part of the last century.

Tonkin says, that a younger branch of the Arundells of Trerice was settled for some time at Trerice in St. Allen.

The son of Sir John Arundell of Trerice, by the coheiress of Beville, settled at Gwarnick: this branch soon became extinct, by the death of John Arundell, Esq., commonly called Black Arundell, in 1597.

The Arundells of Menadarva in Camborne were descended from a younger son of Sir John Arundell of Trerice, who died in the early part of the seventeenth century. It has been supposed that this was an illegitimate branch, but it is most probable, that the tradition on this subject have arisen from the expression of natural son, applied to the first owner of this estate, in his father's will; but as it is well known, and now generally admitted, that the expression of natural son was at that time never used in the acceptation it now bears, it is, in fact, a proof of the contrary. The immediate descendant of this branch, and the only Arundell remaining in Cornwall, in the male line, is William Harris, Esq., of Pembroke-College in Oxford, whose grandfather, William Arundell, Esq., took the name of Harris on succeeding to the Kenegie estate, as before-mentioned. John, a younger son of William Arundell (grandfather of the present William Harris), retained the name of Arundell, and left male issue, who reside in Devonshire. It is probable that the Arundells of Trevelver in St. Minver, extinct in the latter part of the last century, were descended from a younger branch of the Menadarva family.