- Francis Tregian the Elder
Francis Tregian the Elder (1548-1608) was the son of Thomas Tregian of Wolvenden,
Cornwall and Catherine Arundell. A staunchCatholic , he inherited substantial estates on the death of his father, including the manors of Bedock, Landegy, Lanner and Carvolghe, and the family home, 'Golden', in the parish of Probus, nearTruro . He was the father ofFrancis Tregian the Younger .In 1576 Tregian harboured a Catholic
seminary priest ,Cuthbert Mayne , who passed as his steward. [CathEncy|wstitle=Francis Tregian] On 8 June 1577, theSheriff of Cornwall, SirRichard Grenville surrounded the house with some hundred men and arrested both Tregian and Mayne, who was executed later that year. Tregian was also condemned to death, but this sentence was remitted to imprisonment. He was incarcerated at Windsor and then in variousLondon prisons for twenty eight years, until he was released by King James I.Tregian then retired to
Madrid , where he enjoyed a pension from KingPhilip III of Spain . He died at theJesuit hospice at St Roque,Lisbon , where he was buried upright under the westpulpit , symbolic of his stand against Queen Elizabeth.Biographies
P. A. Boyan and G. R. Lamb, "Francis Tregian, Cornish Recusant" (London and New York, 1955)
Raymond Francis Trudgian, "Francis Tregian, 1548-1608: Elizabethan recusant, a truly Catholic Cornishman" (Brighton and Portland, 1998).References
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