The inheritance of the Trethurffe family of Trethurffe, Ladock, in Cornwall, of part of the estates of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, the last of the Courtenay Earls of Devon seated at Tiverton Castle, was supposedly foretold by the Courtenay Faggot being "againe sub-divided into other twayne". The Courtenay Faggot was a mysterious naturally mis-shapen piece of wood split at the ends into four sticks, one of which again split into two, supposedly kept as a valued possession by the Courtenay Earls of Devon, "carefully preserved by those noble men". It was later interpreted as an omen of the end of the line of Courtenay Earls of Devon via four heiresses. It was seen by the Cornish historian Richard Carew when visiting Hall, in the parish of Lanteglos-by-Fowey, Cornwall, then the dower house of Margaret Reskimer, the widow of Sir William Mohun, MP, of Hall, the great-grandson of Elizabeth Courtenay, who described it in his Survey of Cornwall as follows:
Descent
FitzWilliam
Sir John FitzWilliam held Hall in the early 14th century. His daughter and heiress was Elizabeth FitzWilliam, who married Reginald de Mohun, to which family passed Hall and several other estates.
Mohun
Reginald de Mohun (born c.1300)
Reginald de Mohun, the 4th son of John de Mohun, 1st Baron Mohun, feudal baron of Dunster by his wife Anne Tiptoft, daughter of Paine Tiptoft, married Elizabeth FitzWilliam, heiress of Hall, Bodinnoc and other valuable estates. His father granted him a life-interest in the manor of Ugborough in Devon. In 1323 he received a royal pardon from King Edward II for having taken part in the rebellion of the Earl of Lancaster and Roger Mortimer. In 1324-5 he was in Guienne on the King's service, and was abroad again in 1344, with Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby. Maxwell Lyte relates a story "of very doubtful origin" that Reginald first met his future wife Elizabeth FitzWilliam when he came "into Fowey harbour with soldiers bound for Ireland, let fly a hawk at some game which came down in the garden at Hall". The couple were married, but he was soon deprived of his wife by her powerful neighbour Sir John Daunay, who "had designs upon her property". Daunay colluded with the Bishop of Exeter to effect a divorce of the couple on the canonical ground that Elizabeth had previously been engaged to one of Reginald's elder brothers, namely Thomas Mohun. Daunay "eloigned" Elizabeth from Mohun and having married her off to a certain Henry Deneys, then received quit-claims from Mohun of his FitzWilliam lands. However, Mohun made a successful appeal tothe Pope, and at some time after 1346, he eventually recovered his wife and her lands, together with "enormous damages from two parsons who had been the accomplices or tools of Sir John Daunay".
John de Mohun
John de Mohun, of Hall, who married firstly Joan St. Aubyn. He left a widow named Isabel who remarried to Sir Henry Ivelcombe.
Thomas de Mohun (died c.1440)
Thomas de Mohun of Hall. He was a minor at his father's death. He married Elizabeth Hayre, daughter and heiress of Richard Hayre. His monument and monumental brass survives in St Willow's Church, Lanteglos, consisting of an obtuse arch under which is a low altar-tomb on the slab of which is affixed the brass effigy of a man in plate-armour, his feet resting on a dog with a Latin inscription within a ledger line:
The date of death was left blank, but is assumed by Dunkin to have been about 1440. There survive 3 of the original 4 brass heraldic shields: above left: three stag's heads cabossed the antlers drooping downwards; top right: bendy of seven; bottom left: missing, matrix only remaining; bottom right: Mohun with label of three points for difference.
