John Arundell

John Arundell (1576 – December 1654), Esquire, of Trerice in Cornwall, later given the epithet "Jack for the King", was a member of an ancient Cornish gentry family, who as a Royalist during the English Civil War served King Charles I as Governor of Pendennis Castle, Falmouth. In 1646 he retained the castle in a heroic manner during a five-month-long siege by Fairfax, during which his forces were reduced by hunger to eating their horses, and finally achieved an honourable surrender

He served twice as MP for the prestigious county seat of Cornwall (1601 and 1621), and for his family's pocket boroughs of Tregony (1628) and Mitchell (1597) and also for St Mawes (1624). His family "of Trerice" should not be confused with the contemporary ancient and even more prominent Cornish family of Arundell "of Lanherne", six miles north of Trerice, "The Great Arundells", with which no certain shared origin has been found, but which shared the same armorials, the Arundell swallows.

Origins Trerice House, in the parish of Newlyn in Pyder, near Newquay, Cornwall, as rebuilt in 1572 by John Arundell (died 1580). The manor was the main seat of the Arundell family "of Trerice" from the 14th century to 1768 He was born in 1576, the eldest son and heir, by his second wife, of John Arundell (died 1580) of Trerice, a member of parliament for Mitchell, Cornwall, in 1555 and 1558, and Sheriff of Cornwall in 1573–1574, who built the present mansion house at Trerice in about 1572.

His mother was Gertrude Denys, a daughter of Sir Robert Denys (died 1592) of Holcombe Burnell in Devon, by his first wife Mary Mountjoy (a first cousin to Lady Jane Grey ), a daughter of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy (1478–1534), by his fourth wife Dorothy Grey, daughter of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset. Gertrude survived her husband and remarried to Edward, Lord Morley. John VII's younger brother was Thomas Arundell of Duloe, Cornwall, MP for West Looe, a soldier who served in the Netherlands. His grandfather was Sir John Arundell (1495–1561), of Trerice, later known as "Jack of Tilbury", an Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII whom he served as Vice-Admiral of the West. He was knighted at the Battle of the Spurs in 1513 and was twice as Sheriff of Cornwall, in 1532 and in 1541.

In April 1640, he was re-elected as MP for Tregony in the Short Parliament. He was not elected to the Long Parliament, unlike his two sons, Richard Arundell, elected for Lostwithiel and John Arundell for Bodmin. who constructed the harbour wall at Clovelly, by whom he had children including: John Arundell (1613–1644), of Trerice, eldest son, MP from 1640, killed during the Siege of Plymouth in 1644. Richard Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Trerice (1616–1687), 2nd son. He was raised to the peerage following the Restoration of the Monarchy by King Charles II, partly in recompense for his father's Royalist sentiment and heroic defence of Pendennis Castle. Before his elevation to the peerage, he sat twice as MP for Lostwithiel, April 1640 and November 1640 to January 1644, and twice for Bere Alston, 1660 and 1662–1665. Nicholas Arundell (1623–1666), of Gwarnick, near Truro, 3rd son, MP for Truro 1661–6.

Death Arundell died in December 1654.

Six years after his death, the family's fortunes were restored in the Restoration of the Monarchy. Richard, who had been active in the Sealed Knot conspiracy, was raised to the peerage by King Charles II as Baron Arundell of Trerice, partly in recognition of his father's service to the Crown.

Literary portrayals He is a character in the historical novel The Grove of Eagles by Winston Graham, which portrays him sympathetically.