Sir John Arundell (died 1545), detail from his monumental brass, St Columb Major, 1890 engraving

Arms of Arundel of Lanherne, Cornwall, a junior line of which later became Baron Arundell of Wardour: Sable, six martlets argent. These are early canting arms, based on the French for swallow hirondelle. They were recorded for Reinfred de Arundel (died circa 1280), lord of the manor of Lanherne, Cornwall, in the 15th-century Shirley Roll of Arms

Sir John Arundell (1474–1545) Knight Banneret, of Lanherne, St Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall, was "the most important man in the county", being Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall.^[1] His 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".^[2]

Origins

He 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.^[5] He was knighted by bathing^[6] on the eve of All Saints, 31 October 1494^[7] and Knight banneret at the Battle of the Spurs in 1513, during the expedition to Terouenne and Tournay.^[8] In 1525 he declined ennoblement on the plea of insufficient wealth.^[9] His family had remained strictly Catholic unlike his relatives the Arundells of Trerice.^[10]

Marriages and children

Mary Arundell, (Lady Radclif) only daughter of John and Katherine

Arundell married twice:^[11]

• 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,^[12] 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.^[13] He married Margaret Howard, daughter and coheiress of Lord Edmund Howard, and sister of Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII;
  • Elizabeth Arundel, who married Sir Richard Edgcumbe;^[14][15]
  • Jane Arundel, who died testate in 1577;^[16]
• 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.^[17] and lord of the manor of Bideford in Devon, and his first wife Isabel Gilbert. They had one daughter:
  • Mary Arundell (died 1557) who married firstly, Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex and secondly, Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel. She was a Lady in waiting to Jane Seymour (1536), Anne of Cleaves, and Princess Mary in 1539.^[18][19] She is sometimes confused with her stepdaughter Mary FitzAlan.

Monumental brass

Monumental brass of Sir John Arundell (died 1545), St Columb Major; 1890 engraving. Right: Katherine Grenville; Left: Elizabeth Grey

His splendid and originally richly enamelled^[20] monumental brass survives in the parish church of St Columb Major. It is in a fairly complete state, and shows Sir John bare-headed but otherwise in full armour, between his two wives dressed in gowns, mantles, and pedimental headdresses. Below them are two smaller male figures, one partly perfect in armour, and underneath again, six female children, of whom two remain.^[21][22] The brasses are firmly fixed to the original slab of grey marble by apparently the original fastenings.^[23] They were originally in the Arundell chapel (a chantry built by the Arundells on the south side of the chancel of the parish church), and were early in the 19th century covered with some pews which were then placed in the chapel.^[24] On the restoration of the church later that century, the chapel being re-pewed, they were removed to their present position, which is an unfortunate selection, as it subjects them to a large amount of wear from the feet of persons passing over them, they being on the floor of the nave immediately below the chancel steps.^[25] The slab is now the southernmost of two and measures 7 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 9 inches; around it, 3 inches from the edge, is a plain fillet of brass bearing this inscription, partly missing, on a ledger-line:^[26]

John Arundell Knyght of ye Bath and Knyght Banneret Recey(ver of) ye Duchye of Cornwall first ma(ryed ye Lady) Elizabeth Grey daughter to the Lorde Marquis of Dorset & (Catherine) daughter of Syr Thomas Gr(enville Knyght & dyed ye ey)ght of ffebruary the xxxvi yere of the reigne of Kyng Henry the eyght An° Domini 1545 and ye yere of his age (71^[27])

The brass bearing those parts of the inscription enclosed in brackets has been lost. In the upper part of the stone are the finely cut figures in brass of Sir John Arundell and his two wives. Sir John is in the military costume of that period; behind his right shoulder rises a staff bearing a square banner of a knight banneret, the matrix alone surviving as the brass itself of this with the crest and a portion of the helmet and lambrequin, upon which the head of the knight rests, has been lost;^[28] the banner was probably charged with the quartered coat of Arundell without any impalement.^[29]

Death and burial

Sir John Arundell died on 8 February^[37] 1545, and although it might be presumed from the presence of his brass that he was buried at St Columb Major, he was in fact buried in the church of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, in the City of London, as is evidenced by the following inscription at one time in that church, transcribed in 1631 by the antiquarian John Weever (1576–1632)^[38]

Here lieth Sir John Arundell, Knight of the Bath and Knight Banneret, Receivor of the Duchy...Grey daughter to the Lord Marquese Dorset, who died 8 Febr: the 36 of the reigne of King Hen. the 8

Sources

• Goring, J.J., Biography of Arundell, Sir John (by 1500–57), of Lanherne, published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
• Hamilton Rogers, W.H. The Strife of the Roses & Days of the Tudors in the West, Exeter, 1890, Chapter 6, pp. 155–183, "They did cast him", biography of Sir Thomas Arundell, KB.
• on-line text, freefictionbookson-line text, with images, Project Gutenburg
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah. ISBN 978-1449966379.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah. ISBN 978-1449966386.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References