Born: ABT 1564, Boconnoc, Cornwall, England
Died: 1639
Father: William MOHUN of Hall
Mother: Elizabeth HORSEY
Married 1: Mary KILLIGREW (dau. of Henry Killigrew and Catherinne Cooke) AFT 7 Sep 1589
Children:
1. William MOHUN (d. 1613)
Married 2: Phillippa HELE (dau. of John Hele and Margaret Warwick) BEF 1593
Children:
2. Elizabeth MOHUN (b. 10 Feb 1592/3, St. Pinncok - d. AFT Jan 1638/9) (m. Sir John Trelawny, 1st Bt.)
3. John MOHUN (1° B. Mohun of Okehampton) (b. ABT 1592 - d. 1641) (m. Cordelia Stanhope)
Married 3: Dorothy CHUDLEIGH (dau. of John Chudleigh and Elizabeth Speke)
Children:
4. Reginald MOHUN (Sir) (b. ABT 1603 - d. 1642)
5. Bridget MOHUN (m. John Nichols)
6. Dorothy MOHUN (m. Sir Henry Carew)
7. Margaret MOHUN (d. 1670) (m. Charles Roscarrock)
8. Ferdinand MOHUN
9. George MOHUN
10. Penelope MOHUN (bapt. 29 Jan 1609, Boconnoc) (m. William Drewe of Broad Hembury)
Sir Reginald Mohun and his wife Dorothy
Oil on Panel, painted c.1603-4
The coat of arms in the centre represents the Mohun family on the left, and Chudleigh on the right.
Lady Mohun holds a pink rose, a symbol of marriage, in her right hand.
The details in this biography come from the History of Parliament, a biographical dictionary of Members of the House of Commons.
First son of William Mohun of Hall and Boconnoc by his first wife, Elizabeth, dau. of Sir John Horsey. Married first, on 7 Sep 1589, Mary, dau. of Henry Killigrew and Catherinne Cooke. After her death. Reginald married, BEF 1593, Phillippa, dau. of John Hele; and BEF 1604, he married his third wife, Dorothy, dau. of John Chudleigh. Succeeded family 6 Apr 1588 Kntd. 1599; cr. Bt. 26 Nov. 1611. J.p. Cornw. from c.1591, q. 1593, sheriff 1592-3, dep. lt. 1600; portreeve, Fowey 1595; recorder, East Looe prob. from 1588, Lostwithiel 1608.
Sir Reginald (also know as Raynold) was an important West Country magnate, who owned large estates in Cornwall at Boconnoc and Hall. His grandfather, as descendant of the Earl´s of Devon, at the death of Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, in 1556, shared the large inheritance with the three other co-heirs: Margaret Buller, John Vivian and John Trelawny.
Though Mohun succeeded his father as recorder of East Looe, no record of any legal education has been found for him. His family’s local influence was twice sufficient to secure his return to Parliament for Fowey, near his seat at Hall. He was very likely the ‘Mr. Mohun’ who was ‘portreeve’, or mayor, there in 1595. Mohun is not mentioned in the known surviving records of his Parliaments.
His life was that of a country gentleman. He was made a deputy lieutenant upon the death of Sir William Bevill, because he ‘doth dwell in a convenient place ... and is a gentleman of good sufficiency and credit to supply that place’. According to Richard Carew of Antony, Mohun, ‘by his courteous, just and liberal course of life’ maintained his reputation and increased the love borne to his ancestors. From his father, he received Boconnoc and a good number of other ‘fair possessions’. Hall was a place of ‘diversified pleasings’, of ‘present fruitfulness’, which Carew described with the love of an old familiar, tracing ‘a shadow thereof’, so that his readers might ‘guess at the substance’.
In his brief will, dated 14 Jan 1638/9, Mohun wished to be buried in the chancel of the church at Boconnoc. He left 20s. to the poor of that parish, a similar sum to the poor of two other parishes, and small bequests to two sons and four daughters. Otherwise all went to his third wife, the sole executrix. Sir George Chudleigh and Sir Henry Carew were overseers. Mohun died 26 Dec 1639, and his will proved 30 Apr 1640.
Sources:
Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 325
J. Keast, Fowey, 49
F. M. Hext, Lostwithiel, 35; SP14/36/29
T. Bond, E. and W. Looe, 236; APC, xxx. 544
Carew’s Surv. Cornw. ed. Halliday, 136, 206; PCC 50 Rutland
H. C. Maxwell Lyte, Hist. Dunster, ii. 483-5.
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