Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/154

 Arundell south of Lanherne; and some fine portions remain of their mansion of the sixteenth century. At an early period they had another residence at Allerford in West Somerset, but they were seated at Trerice at least as early as the reign of Edward III. At first they bore different arms from the Lanherne Arundells, apparently owing to a difference of opinion as to which was the elder branch; but ultimately they adopted the same, viz. sable, six swallows argent. However this may be, 'precisely to rip up the whole pedigree,' as Richard Carew, the Cornish historian, who married into the Tolverne branch of the family, observes, 'were more tedious than behooveful.' The earliest Trerice Arundell of note seems to have been a Sir John, vice-admiral of Cornwall early in the fifteenth century. When sheriff of Cornwall he was sent by King Edward IV to retake St. Michael's Mount, which had been seized by the Earl of Oxford. Sir John had removed from Efford, by the seaside, to Trerice (an inland abode), owing, it is said, to a prophecy that 'he would be slain in the sands.' Yet he did not avert his fate; for, on the strand near Marazion, he lost his life in 1471 in a skirmish; and his remains lie in the chapel of St. Michael's Mount (cf., 1811, p. 281). The Arundells of Trerice evidently continued in royal favour, for one of them received an autograph letter from the queen of Henry VII, announcing to him the birth of a prince, her son. Henry VIII appointed another Sir John Arundell (grand-nephew of him who was killed at the Mount) his esquire of the body. He was known as 'Jack of Tilbury.' He is noticed below, as well as his grandson, 'John Game to the Toes' — 'John for the King' — and his great-grandson, Richard Arundell, first Baron Arundell of Trerice. Carew is full of information as to this branch of the family. The male line of the family became extinct by the death of the fourth baron, John, in 1768; and Trerice ultimately passed into the hands of its present possessor. Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart. An uncle of the last baron, the Hon. Richard Arundell, who died in 1759 without issue, was M.P. for Knaresborough, clerk of the pipe, surveyor of works, master and warden of the mint, and a commissioner of the treasury. Amongst the legal representatives of the Arundells of Trerice in 1829, was the Hon. Ada Byron, daughter of the poet (Gent. Mag. xcix. pt. ii. p. 215).

The were seated at a very early date at the place on the left bank of the Fal which gives them their distinctive name; but no trace remains of their abode, though in Carew's time (about three hundred years ago) 'amongst all of the houses on that side of the river, Tolverne, for pleasant prospect, large scope, and other housekeeping commodities, challengeth the pre-eminence.' They seem to have separated from the main stem of Lanherne at an earlier date than the Arundells of Trerice, and to have settled at Tolverne in the reign of Edward I, in consequence of Sir John Arundell of Trembleath (son of Sir Ralph Arundell of Lanherne, who was sheriff of Cornwall in 1260) marrying Joan le Soor of Tolverne. Sir Thomas Arundell, who died in 1443, is another of the early Arundells who appears upon the scene. Like the Arundells of Lanherne and Trerice, the Arundells of Tolverne intermarried with good Cornish blood, but this branch chose generally the western families for their alliances, such as Reskymer, Trefusis, St. Aubyn, Godolphin, and Trelawny. The grandson of Thomas Arundell, who died in 1552 (who was also called Thomas, and who was knighted by James I), having seriously impaired his fortune by endeavouring to discover an imaginary island in America, called 'Old Brazil,' sold Tolverne, and afterwards lived at Truthall in the parish of Sithney. John Arundell, son of Sir Thomas, one of the Truthall Arundells, was a colonel of horse for Charles II, and a deputy governor of Pendennis Castle, in 1665, under his relative Richard, Baron Arundell of Trerice; he died in 1671.

Of the, the branch which settled at Menadarva, in the parish of lllogan, appears to have been founded by one Robert Arundell, a natural son of 'Jack of Tilbury.' Hals has, as usual, some odd gossip about him (Harl. MSS. 433, art. 651). One of his descendants (a great-grandson ?), Francis Arundell of Trengwainton near Penzance, was born about the year 1620, and died in 1697. He followed that unusual course amongst the Cornish gentry of taking up arms for the parliament, holding the rank of captain. The Arundells sold Menadarva in 1755 to the Bassets of Tehidy.

Another branch settled at Trevithick, about two miles west of St. Columb Major.

Various others of the minor Arundells appear from time to time (but fallen from their high estate) in the church registers in the eastern part of Cornwall: one of the line, William, more than two centuries ago, married Dorothy, a descendant of that Theodoro Palæologus who was buried at Landulph in 1637. She is described in the parish register as being 'ex stirpe imperatorum;' so that there probably still flows in the veins of many a rustic in the neighbourhood of Callington and Saltash the mingled blood of those 