Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/178

 cruzados a month. He died at Lisbon on 25 Sept. 1608. His remains were interred in a marble sepulchre in the jesuit church of St. Roch. His grave was opened by Father Ignatius Stafford on 25 April 1625, and it is stated that the body was found perfect, and that many miracles were wrought by the relics (Catholic Miscellany, June 1823, ii. 242).

Some English verses by him are prefixed to Richard Verstegan's ‘Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,’ 1605.

At St. Mary's College, Oscott, there is a manuscript entitled ‘The Great and Long Sufferings for the Catholic Faith of Francis Tregian.’ A summary is given in Polwhele's ‘Cornwall,’ v. 156, and in Gilbert's ‘Cornwall,’ ii. 282; and the whole manuscript is printed, with some additional matter, in Father John Morris's ‘Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers’ (1st ser. 1872, pp. 61–140). One of the rarest of printed books is ‘Herovm Specvlvm De Vita DD. Francisci Tregeon, Cvivs Corpvs septendecim post annis in æde D. Rochi integrum inventum est. Edidit F. Franciscus Plunquetus Hibernus, Ordinis S. Bernardi, nepos ejus maternus. Olisipone [Lisbon], cvm Facvltate, Ex officina Craesbeeckiana, Anno 1655.’

[Life by Francis Plunquet, Lisbon, 1655; Addit. MS. 24489, f. 296; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. ii. 757, iii. 1348; Butler's Hist. Memoirs of English Catholics (1821), iii. 382; Camden's Hist. of the Princess Elizabeth (1688), p. 224; Challoner's Missionary Priests (1741), i. 449; Collect. Topogr. et Geneal. iii. 109; Cotton. MS. Titus B. vii. 46; Dublin Review, xxiv. 69; Lingard's Hist. of England (1849), vi. 332; Madden's Hist. of the Penal Laws (1847), p. 121; Oliver's Cornwall, pp. 2, 9, 203; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 196.]  TREGONWELL, JOHN (d. 1565), civilian, born in Cornwall, probably at Tregonwell, was the second son of his family. He was educated at Oxford, at first at Broadgates Hall. He proceeded B.C.L. on 30 June 1515-16, and D.C.L. on 23 June 1522. He became, before he quitted Oxford, principal of Vine Hall, or, as it was sometimes called, Peckwater Inn.

Removing to London, Tregonwell began to practise in the court of admiralty, of which he became before 1535 principal judge or commissary-general. His name occurs in various commissions as to admiralty matters (cf. Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, vii. 115 &c.) Henry soon 'plucked him from the arches,' and employed him on government affairs. He had just the training Henry looked for, and 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, and one of his letters, printed by Sir Henry Ellis, describes the passing of the sentence by Cranmer. He took part in diplomatic negotiations in the Netherlands in May 1532, Hacket and Knight being his companions, to settle commercial disputes. He signed the two treaties of peace of 1534 with Scotland on behalf of England. He also took part in the proceedings against the Carthusians, against Sir Thomas More, and against Anne Boleyn.

Tregonwell's great business was, however, his agency in the dissolution of the monasteries. His main part lay in taking surrenders. His correspondence, of which there is less than of some of the other visitors, gives a more favourable impression of him than of Legh or Layton, and he adopts a firmer tone in writing to Cromwell. He visited Oxford 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 1542-3, a commissioner in chancery in 1544, and a commissioner of the great seal in 1550.

He was knighted on 2 Oct. 1553, and seems to have been favoured by Mary in spite of his history. He was M.P. for Scarborough in the parliament of October 1553, and, though holding a prebend, there was no question of objecting to his return, doubtless because he was a layman. Alexander Nowell [q. v.] 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 died on 8 or 13 Jan. 1564-5 at Milton Abbas, Dorset, for which, after the dissolution, he had paid 1,000l., and was buried in the north aisle under an altar tomb; a copy of the brass to his memory is in British Museum Additional MS. 32490, F.F. f. 54. He occasionally grumbled about the little reward which he had obtained for his services; but he had doubtless made the most of opportunities which came during the visitation, as he died a rich man.

He had married, first, a wife named Kellaway, by whom he had no children; secondly, Elizabeth Bruce, who was buried on 17 Jan. 1581-2, 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.