John Arundell (1474–1545)

Sir John Arundell (1474–1545) Knight Banneret, of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall, was Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall. Called "the most important man in the county", Sir John's monumental brass in the church at St. Columb Major in Cornwall was described by Dunkin (1882) as "perhaps the most elaborate and interesting brass to be found in Cornwall".

Origins

Arundell was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Arundell (1454–1485) KB, by his wife Katharine Dynham, third daughter of John Dynham (1406–1458) and wife Joan Arches, and coheiress to her brother John, 1st Baron Dynham. His family's establishment was at Lanherne House, mainly built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The senior branch of the ancient Cornish family of Arundell had been seated at Lanherne since the middle of the 13th century.

Career

In 1506, under King Henry VII, he became Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall, and in 1509 was confirmed by Henry VIII in that office for life. He was knighted by bathing on the eve of All Saints, 31 October 1494 and Knight banneret at the Battle of the Spurs in 1513, during the expedition to Terouenne and Tournay. In 1525 he declined ennoblement on the plea of insufficient wealth. His family had remained strictly Catholic unlike his relatives the Arundells of Trerice.

Marriages and children

Arundell married twice:
*Firstly to Lady Eleanor Grey, daughter of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and his second wife Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington. Eleanor Grey died in 1503, but provided John with several issue, including:
**Sir John Arundell, (died 1557), eldest son and heir, Knighted, MP for Cornwall in 1554, married Elizabeth Danet, daughter of Sir Gerald Danet of Danet's Hall, Bromkinsthorpe, Leicestershire.
**Sir Thomas Arundell (c. 1502–1552), of Shaftesbury, Dorset and Wardour Castle, Wiltshire, MP for Dorset 1545 and 1547. He married Margaret Howard, daughter and coheiress of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, and sister of Queen Katherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII;
**Elizabeth Arundel, who married Sir Richard Edgcumbe;
**Jane Arundel, who died testate in 1577. She married Robert Spurway of Spurway Manor;
*Secondly in 1507 to Katherine Grenville, youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville (died 1514) of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall, Sheriff of Cornwall in 1481 and 1486. and lord of the manor of Bideford in Devon, and his first wife Isabel Gilbert. They had one daughter:
**Mary Arundell