Old disputes 
brought to
light online

by ROGER DONNE (15290)

I
EXPECT that  many  CFHS   members
are aware of the wealth of catalogued resources available online through the Access to Archives (A2A) website as well as the individual catalogues provided by the various local record offices in Eng-land and Wales - the Cornwall Record Office provides a good example of these on-line records.

For several years  I have been search-ing these sites for references to DONNE family connections in Camborne, St Erth and  surrounding  parishes, believing that I can trace a family line back to Pascow DONNE of Camborne and St Erth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through the numerous variants of this common family name.

I  had thought that I had come to the end of the catalogued documents but was surprised and delighted to discover two further references to Pascow DONNE that now appear in the catalogue of The National Archives,

Each document related to proceedings in the Court of Chancery, which dealt mainly with disputes regarding land. I enquired as to the cost of copies, which I found compared well with the cost of travelling to TNA at Kew, I therefore ordered the copies, which arrived several weeks later securely rolled up in a card-board tube, and which enabled me to start on the task of transcription.

As usual, on first sight, the script ap-peared intractable and the documents too damaged and faded to enable me to tran-scribe the text, but with help of a magnifying glass it was possible to deduce the gist of each document.

I discovered each was in fact the state- ment  of  the plaintiff   (or  'orator'  as referred to in the documents) to the Lord Chancellor, so that they don't record the response of the defendant nor do we know the final judgment of the Court.  Perhaps there are uncatalogued references still waiting to be discovered that record the outcome of the proceedings.

For  those  interested  in  DONNE    fam-ily history and a picture of litigation in seventeenth century West Penwith, I have provided a description and commentary on each  document. I have highlighted the fam-ily names that occur, using the spellings as they appear in the source document.

The  earliest  document  (TNA Cata-logue Reference C3/276/67)  refers to a  case brought by James HOCKEN against Paskowe DONNE concerning a tenement called  Pengegon; both HOCKEN and DONNE are described as yeomen of the parish of Camborne, There is no date that I  could find on the document.  but it does  address the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas EGERTON.     Apparently,  he  was in office as Lord Keeper and later Lord Chancellor from 1596 to 1617, spanning the reigns of Elizabeth  I and James I.

A  reference to  ‘his  magisties Honor-able Coort of Chancerye’ leads to a date after the accession  of James I on 24 Mar 1603,  although other references (see, for  example, www.luminarium.org/encyclo-pedia/egerton.htm) state that Sir Thomas was created Baron Ellesmere by James I on 19 July 1603.

It  seems that  the document could date to those few months between March and July  1603 when he was still plain Sir Tho-as but certainly it must predate Paskowe DONNE’s  move  from  Camborne  to  St Erth. I believe this move happened circa 1612  according  to  other family informa-tion  I have  put together  (see my letter to the CFHS Journal, January 2008)

THE document represents the submis-
sion by the plaintiff,  James HOCK-
EN to the Lord Chancellor that Paskowe DONNE had claimed a false title to the tenement of Pengegon in Camborne to which  James  HOCKEN   and   Bleanche his wife were the lawful tenants under a lease from James BASSETT, lord of the manor of ‘Tehydye’.

James   HOCKEN   recites  the  terms and obligations of the lease, but unfor-tunately he cannot produce the original indenture even after diligent search — ‘in bagge, boxe or chest, sealed, locked or unlocked’,

The document also relates  how Paskowe    DONNE    brought    proceed-ings  against  Henrye  EDYE,   a labourer and a ‘retayner’  of  James   HOCKEN,   in the Hundred Court of Penwith, and how James HOCKEN stood surety for EDYE and was arrested,imprisoned  by  the  stew-ard of the Court, Bennett ANGOVE, and forced to pay an unreasonable fine to se-cure his release.

None of this reflects very well on Paskowe  DONNE,    but   we  don't  know his side of the story  or  the   eventual judg-
ment of the Court of Chancery,     The area of Camborne known as Pengegon which was the cause of this dispute can still be found on modern maps of the town.

Subsequent to the proceedings in Chancery in which Paskowe DONNE of Camborne  was  sued  by  James HOCK-EN,   Paskow himself,  now  described as “of the parish of St Erth, yeoman”, also brought proceedings against Francis BAS- SETT    of  the  Manor  of  Tehidy  set  out  in a document dated 1622, TNA Reterence C3/345/14. (Other information I have indicates that Pascow resided in St Erth, Where he leased the Barton of Trewinnard from about 1612 until his death in 1632).

In this case, the document addresses the  Lord Chancellor  as ' John, Lord Bish-op of Lyncolne’. (John WILLIAMS was Bishop of Lincoln from 1621 to 1641 and Lord  Chancellor from 1621 to 1625;  he was  the last cleric  to  hold  the office of Lord Chancellor.)

The document represents the sub- mission by the plaintiff, Paskow DUNN, to the Lord Chancellor that  Fraunces BAS-ETT  had  refused  to honour  an agree-ment made between Paskow DUNN and James BASSETT, now deceased, the fa- ther of Fraunces BASSETT concerning certain holdings in the Manor of Tehidy.

Paskhow  DUNN   says  the holdings were   originally  let  by   James  BASSETT to   William  KYMPE,   John  DYER   and Jone his wife upon their three lives, and their  interest  was  subsequently bought out by one Allexander ANGOVE in 1599 ("eighteneth Daye of Aprill in the one and flortyeth yeare of the Raigne of our late soveraizne Ladye Queine Elhzabeth")

I   can't   read   clearly   the  regnal   year of the original lease   but  it looks like 26 Oct, 30 Elizabeth 1 (1588).  Later Allex-ander ANGOVE sold this interest on to Paskow DUNN  who also paid a tee to James BASSETT  on  the  understanding that he could nominate other lives to the lease and hence extend his tenure.

Of   the  original lives,  all  but   Jone DYER had died at the time of these pro-ceedings, 1622.    When James BASSETT  died, Paskow says that he approached  Fraunces BASSETT   who said that he would accept the testimony of Allexander  ANGOVE  in  the   Manor  Court  of   Tehidy as sufficient proof  of the agreement with his father James BASSETT.    Paskow DUNN   says   that    Allexander   ANGOVE did duly appear before the Court and tes-tified  on  oath before William CARNAN gent., steward of the Manor of Tehidy.

However, Paskow DUNN claims that although  he had done all that was re-quired   of  him  by   Fraunces  BASSETT. he, Fraunces, still refused to acknowledge his right to name fresh lives  and  contin-ued to harass him and his tenants within the holdings, “thereby intendinge and purposinge to oppresse your  sayd   Orra-tor and to wrest the sayd premises wholye from your Orrator"

I  am not sure exactly where the hold-ings in question were. though I can rec-ognise references to the hamlet of Rose Warne,  and  Dondrea Downs  (I've not found anything like this latter place on modern maps of Camborne and its sur-roundings).

BY this time. 1622, Paskow DUNN had relocated from Camborne to St
Erth, leasing the barton of Trewinnard as well as  other tenements in that parish - with his burial likely to have taken place there on 2 Nov 1630 and subsequently his will being proved 11 Jan 1630/31.

As before, we only have the statement of the plaintiff,  so  do  not  know  how   Fran-cis BASSETT would have answered the charges.    However,  with so much litiga-tion with the lord of the manor and fellow yeomen in Camborne,   it would seem that a move to St Erth would have been very wise for Paskow.

I would  be delighted   if  any  reader could assist me in my interpretation of the documents or shed any further light on the places, persons and families mentioned,

CONTACT: roger@donne.free-online.co.uk