Author: Matt Blewett

There is no information regarding William Ham’s life circumstances, however we know that he took part in the Rebellion through a reference found on William Ham is in A.L. Rowse’s Tudor Cornwall (p.122), with the footnote Rolls Parlt. vi. 544. The parish of Stoke Climsland is situated in the valley of the river Tamar and is bounded by the […]

Very little is known about Richard Borlase; he may have died in the battle of Blackheath, but this is not certain. He is mentioned in Henry vii’s “Bill of Attainder or Conviction “. A bill of attainder is one in which the convict’ s goods must be forfeit to the crown. Wives, however, if they […]

Of both Ralph Retallack and Thomas Polgrene (Polgreen), of St Columb and Polgreen (most likely Polgreen Manor near Polgooth) respectively, very little is known apart from their part in the rebellions of 1497, and their signatures to the petition against the unfair taxation (Rowse 1943, Payton 1996) Both had their lands, titles, liberties and property […]

Until a short while ago, I did not link the Camborne Miracle Play ‘Bewnans Meryasek’, the 1497 uprising and a gentleman, John ‘Gentleman John’ de Rosewarne  from Rosewarne  near Camborne in the County of Kerrier in Cornwall. The uprising was concerning the taxes from King Henry Tudor to enable the English to fight the Scots. […]

Helston tends to be remembered for its associations with the outbreak of the 1549 Prayer Book rebellion. But this was not the first time that the town had featured in Cornwall’s rebellious past since in 1497 its recent MP, William Antron, became one of the key leaders in the first uprising of that year. Antron, […]

There is no record of any Trevysall outside of the bill of attainder. There are several reasons for this – if John Trevysall was truly his name, then he may not have been important enough to leave other documents that mention him. Another reason is that surnames in Cornwall were not fixed; the trend for […]

Hello all, here is Thomas Flamank. Thomas Flamank was a lawyer and a former MP from Bodmin in Cornwall. With the blacksmith Michael Joseph from St Keverne, he led an army to London to protest against taxes and the closure of the Cornish Stannary Parliament.. Joseph and Flamank fought a large battle against the army […]

Biographical details of Michael Joseph are limited. He came from the artisan class and his lack of wealth would have left no paper trail at this time. Written sources of the time tell us only that he was a blacksmith who came from St Keverne. The title ‘An Gof’ that followed Michael Joseph’s name denoted […]

On June 27th every year we commemorate the leaders of the AD1497 commotion, when the Cornish marched to London and met terrible vengeance at the hands of King Henry Tudor. This year we wanted to remember there were more Cornish leaders in AD1497. We wanted to get a very short biography of some of these, […]