John Penros
John Penros or Penrose was a Cornish lawyer and judge who held high office as Lord [Chief Justice of Ireland], and subsequently served as a High Court judge in England and Wales. Despite his professional eminence, he was guilty of "an extraordinary career of crime" which stretched over nearly thirty years. When the charges against him were eventually proven, he was removed from the Bench.
He belonged to a landowning family based at Escalls near Land's End in Cornwall. He was a qualified advocate, and apparently a good one, as his name appears frequently in the Law Reports in the early 1380s. However he quickly
became notorious as a law-breaker. Along with his associates John Trevarthian senior , and his son Sir John Trevarthian junior he was for many years one of the principal disturbers of the peace in Cornwall. He had at least one brother Joss, who also seems to have been a malefactor, though in a much smaller way.
What was later described as his "remarkable career of crime" began about 1370. In 1383 he was indicted in Surrey for his role in the murder of Richard Eyre, a fellow Cornishman whose family had a long-standing feud with the Trevarthians. The following year an arrest warrant on the charge of murder was issued for his apprehension but was later withdrawn, apparently on the ground that he was not the principal actor in the murder. The list of serious crimes of which the Trevarthians were accused, and to which Penrose, his brother Joss and his cousin Michael Trereise were accessories, grew to a remarkable length: it included their private war with the Eyre family, which had resulted in the murder of Richard Eyre in 1383, as well as piracy, burglary and treason. In time, however, the Trevarthian family became wealthy and respectable: at the time of his death in 1405 Sir John Trevarthian junior was Under Sheriff of Cornwall.
Despite his appalling criminal record, Penrose was sent to Ireland as Lord Chief Justice in 1385. He landed at Dalkey, near Dublin, in late September, In 1391, he was arrested following an intriguing case in the Court of the King's Bench. Peter Trelewhit had accused William Eyre and Ralph Treskulard of intending to murder John Penros. Before a panel of judges that included the Lord Chancellor, the Keeper of the Privy Seal and Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Trelewhit confessed to making the accusation after being incited into doing so by Penros. The fate of Penros is unclear but subsequently became Justiciar of South Wales in 1393. He was a trier of petitions in the House of Commons in 1394, but was eventually removed from the Bench on the ground of his record as a notorious criminal.
Penros married firstly Joan, daughter of Richard Carnver, who died about 1391, and secondly, in about 1395, Constance, of whom little is known. With Joan he had at least two sons, William and John; John is said to have been an "imbecile from birth". Penros died in 1411.