Andrew Borlase
Andrew Borlase | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Parliament of England for Truro | |
| In office 1395–1395 | |
| Personal details | |
| Died | before Michaelmas 1413 |
| Nationality | English |
| Spouse(s) | Amice |
| Children | Mark Borlase |
| Parents | Noel Borlase |
| Occupation | Lawyer and landowner |
Andrew Borlase (also recorded as Andrew Borlas or Andrew Burlas; died before Michaelmas 1413) was a Cornish lawyer, landowner and politician. He represented Truro in the Parliament of England in 1395 and maintained an active legal practice in the royal courts from the 1380s into the early fifteenth century.[1]
Based at Borlase Frank in St Wenn, Cornwall, Borlase spent several years defending the family's title to its principal estate after the Crown questioned whether his ancestors had been aliens and therefore legally capable of holding English land. In 1401 he obtained royal protection to accompany Thomas of Lancaster, the king's son and lieutenant of Ireland, to Ireland.[1]
Family and estates
Andrew was the son of Noel Borlase and a member of the family later known as the Borlase family. The family's principal medieval estate at St Wenn was known as Borlase Frank or Borlase Frank Taillefer, reflecting the family's earlier use of the names Frank and Taillefer.[1][2]
According to the History of Parliament, Andrew became heir to the principal family property following the deaths of his cousin Alice, the last member of the immediate family recorded as using the surname Taillefer, and of his father Noel. Both had died by the time Andrew entered Parliament in 1395.[1] Through his mother he also inherited land at a place recorded as Trevysek near Pencarowe.[1]
Andrew married a woman named Amice or Amicia. Through the marriage he acquired property in both Penryn and Fowey.[1] William Copeland Borlase records that in 1408 Andrew and Amicia quitclaimed a plot of land at Fowey to John Cadevan, a tailor, while in the following year Andrew brought proceedings concerning property at Penryn.[2]
Legal career
Borlase was active as an attorney long before his election to Parliament. The History of Parliament records appearances by him in the courts at Westminster from about 1380, where he represented litigants from Cornwall and Devon.[1] The nineteenth-century archival research of William Copeland Borlase similarly identified Andrew acting as an attorney in litigation from the early 1380s, including proceedings on behalf of Thomas Arfos, his own mother and several other Cornish litigants.[2]
The extent of such legal activity has also been noted in modern scholarship. S. J. Drake, in a study of the integration of fourteenth-century Cornwall into the English legal system, describes Borlase as overseeing a busy legal practice from the 1380s and places him within a network of Cornish lawyers operating in the central royal courts.[3]
Association with John Penros
Early in his career Borlase was associated with the political and legal faction surrounding John Penros of Escalls and members of the Trevarthian family. In 1383 a prolonged feud between the Trevarthians and the Eyr family culminated in the killing of Richard Eyr in Surrey. Borlase, Penros and two members of the Trevarthian family were indicted before commissioners of oyer and terminer for their alleged involvement. Borlase did not immediately surrender and was still evading arrest in March 1384.[1]
The proceedings do not appear to have permanently damaged his career. The History of Parliament concludes that he succeeded in clearing his name, since in January 1385 Penros, on becoming chief justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, appointed Borlase as one of his attorneys in England during his absence.[1] Drake likewise identifies Andrew Borlas as the attorney appointed by Penros while the latter was serving in Ireland.[3]
Borlase subsequently appears to have distanced himself from the more violent disputes involving Penros and the Trevarthians. No dealings between Borlase and the Trevarthians are known after 1389, and he later sued one of their adherents for debt.[1]
Later practice
Considerable evidence survives of Borlase's work as a lawyer during the 1390s and the first decade of the fifteenth century. Among his clients was John Tregoose, whom he represented in litigation against Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.[1]
Borlase was also frequently involved in litigation concerning his own property and interests. Proceedings recorded by the History of Parliament concerned a burglary at a property called Tregenethe, destruction of crops at Tregarne, an assault upon one of his servants and actions against debtors.[1]
A more substantial case in the King's Bench lasted several years. John Colard of Saltash, a servant of Henry Beaufort, alleged that Borlase owed £100 under a bond made in 1397 in connection with the arbitration of a dispute involving Colard and another party.[1]
Dispute over Borlase Frank
One of the principal legal problems of Borlase's career concerned the family's title to Borlase Frank at St Wenn. After the death of his grandfather John Frank Taillefer, it was alleged that the family estate ought to have escheated to the Crown because John was an alien and therefore incapable of holding the land lawfully.[1]
Andrew disputed this interpretation. He maintained that his ancestor William Frank Taillefer had been born in Cornwall and that successive generations of the family had been lawful subjects of the English Crown.[1] The dispute consequently concerned not only the immediate possession of the estate but the nationality and legal status attributed to the earlier members of the family.
In 1397 the property was taken into the Crown's hands and farmed through the Exchequer. By the following year Andrew had secured temporary possession while the King's Bench considered whether the estate properly belonged to the Crown.[1]
Following the accession of Henry IV, Henry of Monmouth, as Duke of Cornwall, renewed Andrew's grant of the property in November 1399. The underlying question of the family's title nevertheless continued to be litigated.[1]
William Copeland Borlase's account, based on medieval plea and assize records, describes the dispute as eventually ending in favour of the Borlase family, whose possession of Borlase Frank continued thereafter.[2] The History of Parliament similarly treats Andrew as remaining in possession of the family estate.[1]
Parliament and royal service
Borlase was elected as one of the two representatives for Truro to the Parliament which met in 1395.[1][2] No parliamentary speeches or committee activities by him are known to survive.
His legal career also brought him into royal service. In 1401 he obtained letters of protection for a journey to Ireland in the company of Thomas of Lancaster, son of Henry IV, who had been appointed the king's lieutenant there.[1]
By September 1407 Borlase was again in Cornwall, where he attended the county parliamentary elections held at Grampound.[1]
Death and descendants
Borlase died before Michaelmas 1413. His widow Amice subsequently married John Botreaux of Botreaux-Mesek, the marriage taking place either later in 1413 or early in 1414.[1]
Andrew's heir was his son Mark Borlase, who subsequently represented Helston in Parliament in 1433.[1] The History of Parliament considers it probable that another Andrew Borlase, from whom the later Borlase Burgess branch descended, was also a son of Andrew of Borlase Frank.[1]
The senior line remained associated with Borlase Frank in St Wenn, while later branches of the family established themselves elsewhere in Cornwall. The descendants and collateral relatives of these branches included the antiquary William Borlase, the politician and archaeologist William Copeland Borlase and Sir John Borlase Warren.[2]
See also
- Borlase family
- St Wenn
- Truro (UK Parliament constituency)
- John Penros
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 "BORLASE (BURLAS), Andrew (d.c.1413), of Borlase 'Frank' in St. Wenn, Cornw". The History of Parliament Online. History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Borlase, William Copeland (1885). "History of the Family of Taillefer alias Borlase of Borlas Frank Taillefer in the County of Cornwall". The Genealogist. New Series. London: George Bell & Sons. 2: 129–132 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Drake, S. J. (2019). "Lawless Judges and Litigious Cornishmen: Legal Connectivity". Cornwall, Connectivity and Identity in the Fourteenth Century. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 235–254. doi:10.1017/9781787446984.014. Search this book on
Further reading
- Borlase, William Copeland (1885). "History of the Family of Taillefer alias Borlase of Borlas Frank Taillefer in the County of Cornwall". The Genealogist. New Series. London: George Bell & Sons. 2: 129–132 – via Internet Archive.
- Drake, S. J. (2019). Cornwall, Connectivity and Identity in the Fourteenth Century. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. Search this book on
External links
- Andrew Borlase at the History of Parliament
Media related to Borlase family heraldry at Wikimedia Commons
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