Boconnoc () is a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, approximately east of the town of Lostwithiel.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 Newquay & Bodmin According to the 2011 census the parish had a population of 96.
The parish is rural in character and is fairly well wooded. It is bordered to the west by St Winnow parish, to the south by St Veep parish, to the southeast and east by Lanreath parish, and to the north by Braddock parish.Cornwall Council online mapping . Retrieved May 2010 The hamlets of Couch's Mill and Brooks are in the parish.Cornwall ; Explore Britain Part of ancient deer park at Boconnoc House contains an internationally important assemblage of lichens and is one of the most important sites in Europe for lichens.
History There are Cornish crosses in the churchyard, on Druids' Hill and in Boconnoc Park. The latter cross was removed to here from Lanlivery and has some curious incised ornament.Langdon, A. G. (1896) Old Cornish Crosses. Truro: Joseph Pollard; pp. 51-52, 167-68, 291-93
The manor of Boconnoc is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Bochenod, and was then one of the many hundred possessions of Robert, Count of Mortain, the half-brother of King William the Conqueror.opendomesday.org Robert's tenant was a Briton named as "Offers", elsewhere in the Domesday Book named "Offels, Offerd, Offers, Osfert, Osfertus", and now known as "Osfrith of Okehampton" in Devon.opendomesday.org In 1086 Osfrith held in total 12 manors in Devon and Cornwall, and before the Norman Conquest of 1066 had held 20. The holder in 1268 was De Cant.
Carminow
At some point Boconnoc came into the possession of the Carminow family, who originated in the Cornish parish of Mawgan in Meneage. The church there contains stone effigies of Roger Carminow (died 1308) in armour beside his wife Joan Dinham, daughter of Oliver Dinham (died 1299), 1st Baron. He is said to have fought under King Edward I in his wars in Scotland and to have served as Member of Parliament for Cornwall in 1300. His son Sir John Carminow (died 1341) married Joan Glyn (died 1349), daughter of Sir John Glyn, and their son was Sir Walter Carminow, who married Alice Tintern, daughter of Sir Stephen Tintern, of St Tudy. They had two sons, the elder being Sir Ralph Carminow (died 1386), who sat three times as MP for Cornwall, in 1383, 1384 and 1386, but left no surviving children.
Some details of Sir Ralph's time at Boconnoc can be found in the “History of Parliament”. In the 1370s he and his brother petitioned Edward the Black Prince, as Duke of Cornwall and his father King Edward III of England against John Sergeaux, husband of his wife’s sister, alleging that Sergeaux had sent men to Boconnoc, viciously assaulted him and his wife, removed 200 pounds worth of goods, and left him for dead. While serving as sheriff of Cornwall, Sergeaux then launched a second effort to obtain the property by an attachment order, taking more of his possessions to an alleged value of 1,000 pounds.
On a visitation of the diocese in 1371, Bishop Thomas Brantingham of Exeter found that Sir Ralph and his first wife Catherine Champernowne were living as husband and wife illegally, their marriage being invalid in canon law as they were related in both the third and the fourth degrees of consanguinity. Summoned before the bishop in 1372, Sir Ralph presented letters he had obtained from the papal nuncio, Cardinal Simon Langham, granting the couple dispensation for the marriage.
In 1381 a royal commission found that William Botreaux, 1st Baron, hearing of the Peasants' Revolt in London, had gathered 80 men and broken into the park at Boconnoc, hunted the deer, killing 20 of them, and generally damaged the property. Botreaux’s wife appealed against the charge, saying that her husband was then on military service in Portugal and that the accusation against him was false. In 1383 Sir Ralph was one of 18 major landowners in Cornwall ordered to reside near the sea, in his case probably at Boconnoc which is at the head of the Fowey estuary, in order to provide prompt defence in case of French invasion.
He was supposed to be at Westminster for the opening of Parliament on 1 October 1386 but had not left Boconnoc by 9 October 1386, when he went out hunting with a pair of greyhounds, who pulled him to his death over the edge of a cliff (the fate of the dogs is not recorded).
The estate passed to his younger brother, Sir William Carminow (died 1407), Sheriff of Devon in 1391 and MP for Cornwall in 1407, who married Margaret Kelly (died 1420), and his heir was his son Thomas Carminow (died 1442), husband of Joan Hill, the daughter of Sir Robert Hill, of Shilstone in Modbury. They left two daughters, the elder being Margaret Carminow, who married first Sir John St Loe, secondly Wiliiam Botreaux, and thirdly Sir Hugh Courtenay (died 1471) who was executed after the Battle of Tewkesbury. Boconnoc then passed to his eldest son, Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon.
Courtenay
Sir Edward de Courtenay of Goodrington was the second son of Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd/10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377), of Tiverton Castle in Devon and of Okehampton Castle in Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton, and feudal baron of Plympton. By his wife Emeline Dauney he was the father of Edward de Courtenay, 3rd/11th Earl of Devon (1357–1419), "The Blind Earl", the ancestor of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Earls, which senior line was extinguished during the Wars of the Roses, the last of whom was killed in the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Sir Edward de Courtenay's second son (and therefore the brother of "The Blind Earl") was Sir Hugh Courtenay (1358-1425) of Haccombe in Devon,Frequently and apparently erroneously called "of Haccombe and Boconnoc" (e.g. in Vivian, 1895, p.245. He did not hold the manor of Boconnoc, and is called in his History of Parliament biography "of Haccombe and Bampton, Devon", no mention being made of Boconnoc Sheriff of Devon for 1418/19 and thrice knight of the shire for Devon in 1395, 1397 and 1421,History of Parliament biography the grandfather of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509), KG, created Earl of Devon in 1485 by King Henry VII.
Sir Hugh Courtenay (1358-1425) inherited the manor of Haccombe from his heiress wife (his 2nd wife) Philippa Archdekne (alias Ercedecne), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Warin Archdekne (1354-1400), MP.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.245, pedigree of Courtenay His son and heir by his 3rd wife Matilda Beaumont, was Sir Hugh Courtenay (d.1471) of Boconnoc, who married the heiress Margaret Carminowe. Boconnoc was visited by the antiquary William Worcester (1415-c.1482) who described the house then standing as "Blekennoc House, a turretted old mansion, lately the seat of Sir Hugh Courtenay".Itineraries of William Worcester, quoted in Lysons
It is believed that Boconnoc reverted to the crown in consequence of an attainder in the Courtenay family,Lysons. Possibly following the death of Sir Hugh Courtenay II at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Certainly his cousin the 7th Earl of Devon, who died in the same battle fighting for the same Lancastrian cause, was attainted at that time and was later regranted to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c.1485-1555).Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons, 'Parishes: St Blazey - Bodmin', in Magna Britannia: Volume 3, Cornwall (London, 1814), pp. 24-38 It was sold in 1579 by Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford (1527–1585) to Sir William Mohun, who died seised of it in about 1587.Lysons Sir William Mohun was in any case one of the rightful co-heirs of the Courtenay family of Boconnoc.
Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (c.1527-1556) was unmarried and childless at the time of his death. The manor and Castle of Tiverton and his other numerous estates devolved to his distant cousins, descended from the four sisters of his great-grandfather Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509), all children of Sir Hugh Courtenay (d.1471) of Boconnoc and his wife, Margaret Carminow.Lysons, Daniel & Samuel, Magna Britannia, Vol 6, Devonshire, 1822, pp.496–520 These four sisters were as follows:Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.245, pedigree of CourtenayPrince, biography of Edward Courtenay (d.1556), 1810 edition, p.263 Elizabeth Courtenay, wife of John Trethurffe of Trethurffe in the parish of Ladock, Cornwall. Maud Courtenay, wife of John Arundell of Talvern Isabel/Elizabeth Courtenay, wife of William Mohun of Hall in the parish of Lanteglos-by-Fowey in Cornwall, a descendant of John Mohun (d.1322) of Dunster Castle in Somerset, feudal baron of Dunster by his wife Anne Tiptoft.Vivian, 1895, p.565Vivian, Heraldic Visitations of Devon, pp.245, 565, 566, where she is called "Elizabeth", frequently interchangeable with "Isabel" In 1628 her descendant John Mohun (1595–1641) was created by King Charles I Baron Mohun of Okehampton, his ancestor having inherited as his share Okehampton Castle and remnants of the feudal barony of Okehampton, one of the earliest possessions of the Courtenays.Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.11 The Mohuns' held the manor of Boconnoc not (as might be expected) as a share of the Courtenay inheritance, but by lease from the Russell family, Earls of Bedford. Florence Courtenay, wife of John Trelawny Thus the Courtenay estates were divided into four parts. On the death of Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, in 1556, the actual heirs to his estates were the following descendants of the four sisters above:History of Parliament biography of Reginald Mohun (1507/8-67) of Hall Reginald Mohun (1507/8-67) of Hall in the parish of Lanteglos-by-Fowey in Cornwall, who inherited Okehampton Castle and had leased Boconnoc from the Earl of Bedford. His descendant was John Mohun, 1st Baron Mohun of Okehampton (1595–1641) who was elevated to the peerage by King Charles I as Baron Mohun of Okehampton, in recognition of his ancestor having inherited Okehampton Castle as his share of the Courtenay inheritance. Margaret Buller; John Vivian; John Trelawny;
Mohun
The Mohuns of Boconnoc and of Hall in the parish of Lanteglos-by-Fowey, in Cornwall, were a junior branch of the Mohun family, and were descended from John Mohun (d. 1322)Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 565 of Dunster Castle in Somerset, feudal baron of Dunster by his wife Anne Tiptoft.See pedigree of Mohun of Boconnoc, in Vivian, J. L., ed. (1887). The Visitations of Cornwall: comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1530, 1573 & 1620; with additions by J.L. Vivian. Exeter: W. Pollard, p.324 William Mohun of Hall married Elizabeth Courtenay, one of the greatest heiresses of her time, one of the four eventual co-heiresses of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (1527–1556) the last of the mediaeval Courtenay Earls of Devon. The Mohun share of the Courtenay inheritance included Boconnoc in Cornwall and Okehampton Castle in Devon, and other remnants of the feudal barony of Okehampton, one of the earliest possessions of the Courtenays.
The grandson of William Mohun of Hall and Elizabeth Courtenay was Reginald Mohun (1507/8–1567) of Hall and Boconnoc, who married Jone Trevanion, daughter of Sir William Trevanion and sister of Sir Hugh Trevanion.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 566