Family and Education

bap. Oct. 1626, 1st s. of Nicholas Kendall of Pelyn by Emlyn, da. and coh. of Thomas Treffrey of Lostwithiel, Cornw. m. 17 July 1650, Joan (bur. 29 Apr. 1716), da. of Sir Alexander Carew, 2nd Bt., of Antony, Cornw., s.p. suc. fa. 1641.1

Offices Held

Lt.-col. of ft. (royalist) by 1646.2

Commr. for assessment, Cornw. 1660-80, j.p. 1662-80, 1685-July 1688, Nov. 1688-?d.; stannator, Blackmore 1673, 1686.3

Biography

Kendall was descended from a branch of the Treworgey family seated at Pelyn, one mile from Lostwithiel. His ancestors had represented the borough since the reign of Richard II, and were equally prominent in municipal office; his cousin Walter (1608-93), the elder brother of Thomas Kendall, who lived in the town, served seven terms as mayor between 1642 and 1687. His great-uncle Nicholas Kendall was killed fighting for the King, and Kendall himself, despite his youth, was commissioned in the regiment of Sir Charles Trevanion. He was denounced as a delinquent in 1649, and compounded in the following year on a fine of £150.4

Kendall was returned for Lostwithiel to all three Exclusion Parliaments with his brother-in-law, Sir John Carew. Classed as ‘doubtful’ by Shaftesbury, he was appointed only to the committee of elections and privileges in 1679, and voted against the exclusion bill. Perhaps because Carew, whose return he had procured, was an exclusionist, he was among the gentlemen ‘of estate and worth’ put out of the Cornish commission of the peace in 1680. He took no known part in the second and third Exclusion Parliaments, but he joined the syndicate headed by Francis Robartes ‘of knights and burgesses of this present Parliament for Cornwall’, which applied for the Tangier victualling contract. Although his cousin was charter mayor in 1685, Kendall is not known to have stood for James II’s Parliament. He was recommended by Lord Bath as court candidate for the borough in 1688; but he gave the same evasive answers as Carew on the repeal of the Test and Penal Laws, and was again removed. He regained his seat in the Convention, but the references to ‘Mr Kendall’ in the Journal are probably to James Kendall, though he may have been added to the committee for the bill reversing ‘Julian’ Johnson’s degradation. He was granted leave of absence on 6 July 1689, but he was back in Westminster on 2 Jan. 1690 when he complained that his servant had been arrested and was still being held in custody. There is no record of his having voted or spoken in this Parliament. He was re-elected in 1690 and buried at Lanlivery on 5 July 1696. The next member of the family to sit was Nicholas Kendall, who represented East Cornwall in every Parliament between the first and second reform bills.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Eveline Cruickshanks / Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 260.
• 2. Information from Brigadier Peter Young.
• 3. HMC Var. i. 337; Add. 6713, ff. 121, 377.
• 4. Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornw. iii. 22, 178; F. M. Hext, Mems. Lostwithiel, 96; Vivian, 262; M. Coate, Cornw. in the Gt. Civil War, 72; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 1121; Cal. Comm. Comp. 2240.
• 5. HMC Lords, i. 176; Cal. Treas. Bks. vii. 149; HMC Var. i. 328; Gilbert, iii. 22.