Family and Education

s. of William Hender of Botreaux Castle by Agnes, da. of John Newcourt of Holsworthy, Devon. educ. M. Temple 1565. m. Jane, da. of Thomas Thorne of Yardley, Northants., 1s. d.v.p. 4da.

Offices Held

Dep. constable, Tintagel castle; mayor, Bossiney 1576-8, 1592-3, 1600-1; escheator, Cornw., Devon 1580; j.p. Cornw., from c.1592.

Biography

Hender, who had taken over the nomination of one of the Bossiney seats after the 2nd Earl of Bedford’s death, returned himself twice for the borough. On the first occasion his name, though in the same hand as the rest of the return, was inserted later, leaving about three inches before it, filled in with dashes. He was the leading local landowner, holding, in addition to the Botreaux estate bought by him in 1575, property in Minster, Merren and Trewanant, together with several neighbouring rectories; Tintagel castle, where he was deputy constable, was less than a mile from Bossiney. ‘A very tall young man’, he lived as a typical country gentleman, taking a full part in county affairs despite allegations that he himself was ‘evil affected’ in religion and that his father and mother were papists. He or his younger brother Edward may have been the ‘Captain Hinder’ whose velour was commended in a despatch to the Privy Council about a fight with the Spaniards at the Groyne in May 1589. In the autumn of 1593 he signed a letter to Burghley from a number of Cornish justices of the peace, complaining that their county was hurt by Henry Warner’s patent for salting and curing fish. When Hender settled his estates on his children he named as chief trustee the judge, (Sir) William Peryam, with whom he shared the patronage at Bossiney. Nevertheless, when a by-election occurred at Bossiney in 1609, it was Hender who sent the Earl of Salisbury a blank indenture which Salisbury could complete by inserting the name of his nominee. A covering letter explained that Sir John Harington had recently ‘belaboured for the same’, but Hender, who had had ‘for these twenty years past and more the nomination of the burgesses for that place’, was glad to grant Salisbury’s request for a seat. He took the opportunity of asking that he should not be pricked as sheriff of Cornwall. He died 7 June 1611, leaving, in the will he had made the previous day, £5 to the church at Minster where he was buried. Another charitable bequest was to be paid out of the rents of the ‘borough of Botreaux castle’, and the profits of the fairs and markets there which Hender had recently bought from the 5th Earl of Huntingdon, and 2s.8d. ‘a week for ever’ was to be given to four poor people born in the parishes of Forrabury and Minster, of whom two were to be seafaring men or their widows, and the other two ‘of the land’. The estate was divided between his three surviving daughters and the son of a deceased daughter. Botreaux went to Elizabeth, wife of William Cotton. The bishop of Exeter, her father-in-law, was one of the overseers, and any doubts about the meaning of the will were to be referred to a lawyer, Richard Trefusis, possibly the Member for Camelford. The will was proved 8 July 1612.

Vis. Cornw. (Harl. Soc. ix), 93; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, passim; S. Madge, ‘Tintagel Recs.’ (ms in BL dept. printed books), 3, 729, 801-5; Duchy of Cornw. recs. ex inf. Graham Haslam; Lansd. 74, f. 2; C219/31/27; C142/519/94; CSP Dom. 1581-90, p. 596; 1603-10, p. 551; PCC 63 Fenner.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N.M.S.

Notes