John Arundell

Arms of Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall: Sable, six martlets argent.

John Arundell (by 1527 – 17 November 1590), of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall, was an English politician. He was a noted recusant, and a close associate of the Catholic martyr St. Cuthbert Mayne.

Biography He was the eldest son of John Arundell (died 1557) and Elizabeth Dannett, daughter of Sir Gerald Dannett of Dannett's Hall, Leicestershire. The Arundells were a wealthy and influential family with close connections to the Tudor dynasty. The head of the senior (Lanherne) branch of the family was often described as "the most important man in the county". The elder John's younger brother Thomas was also a political figure of some eminence, who fell out of Royal favour and was executed for treason in 1552. John was imprisoned but never brought to trial. Under the Catholic Queen Mary I, the surviving Arundells, who were staunch Catholics, regained much of their influence in Cornwall.

John Arundell married, in 1557, Lady Ann Stanley, widow of Charles Stourton, 8th Baron Stourton, and daughter of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and Lady Dorothy Howard. Their children included: Dorothy Arundell c.1559 who was a Benedictine nun and author Gertrude Arundell, nun

Recusant

Like his father, and many other members of the Arundell family, he was an open Roman Catholic. He refused to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity 1559 and rarely attended Anglican services (despite the legal obligation to do so at least once a week, on pain of a fine). He was a close associate of the martyr Cuthbert Mayne, and paid for the education of another Catholic martyr, John Cornelius, later to be the family chaplain for eleven years. Their daughters, Dorothy and Gertrude, funded the creation of English Benedictine convent in Brussels.

Ancestry