Family and Education

bap. 28 Mar. 1650, 1st s. of Thomas Treffry of Rooke by Jane, da. of John Vivian of Trewan. educ. Exeter, Oxf. 1668. m. Katherine (bur. Mar. 1724), da. of Henry Stephens, merchant of Fowey, Cornw., s.p. suc. fa. aft. 1658.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Cornw. 1679-80, 1689; alderman, Fowey 1685-Oct. 1688, asst. 1690-d.2

Biography

Treffry’s ancestors can be traced back in Cornwall to the 13th century and first represented a Cornish borough in 1348. Treffry’s father apparently avoided commitment during the Civil War, although his cousin John, the head of the family, was a Royalist whose property was sequestrated in 1648. On his death in 1658 the estate and the family interest in Fowey came to Treffry’s father.3

Treffry was returned to the Exclusion Parliaments for Fowey, but left no trace on their records. Listed as ‘honest’ by Shaftesbury in 1679, he was absent from the division on the first exclusion bill. He probably went over to the Court under the influence of the Trelawnys. In 1681 he joined the syndicate of Cornish Members that applied for the Tangier victualling contract. Appointed alderman of Fowey under the new charter, he was re-elected to James II’s Parliament, in which he was again totally inactive. He presumably accepted the Revolution, for he was restored to the corporation under William III’s charter; but he never became a j.p. nor, so far as is known, did he stand again. He was buried at Fowey on 2 Apr. 1731, the last of his family to sit in Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 460; Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornw. ii. 19.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1685, p. 84; 1689-90, p. 518.
• 3. Gilbert, ii. 16, 28-30, 356; Cal. Comm. Comp. 117, 3051.
• 4. Cal. Treas. Bks. vii. 148-9; Treffry mss.