| Notes |
--- "The Beauties of England and Wales" by John Britton, 1801, page 381:
Gives date of portrait in PE Dining Room of John Eliot of Cotelands as 1574.
--- "The Life of Sir John Eliot" by Harold Hulme, 1957, page 17-8:
For nearly two hundred years the Eliots had lived in Devon, where they were not importrant people, small free-holders at best. The founder of the family's fortunes and the first to attain prominence was John Eliot, gentleman, merchant, and mayor of Plymouth. In 1544 when England was at war with France, Henry VIII assisted Eliot to equip four ships and eight barques with which 'to annoy our enemies and defend our realm'. Soon after the death of King Henry, John Eliot leased the manor of Cuddenbeak in St. Germans, Cornwall, from the Bishop of Exeter. He was the first of the family to cross the Tamar into Cornwall.
Cuddenbeak was an old episcopal palace originally built in the tenth century for the Bishop of Cornwall. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Tiddy, a tidal tributary of the Tamar, it was about six miles from Plymouth. Looking down from Cuddenbeak John Eliot must have been entranced by the old Norman church and Augustinian priory flanked on two sides by copses of beach and meadow lands rolling to the river bank. He must have looked with yearning at these buildings and broad acres which a short time ago had fallen into the hands of the Champernown family in consequence of the monastic depredations of Henry VIII. In 1565 Henry Campernown sold to John Eliot od Cuddenbeak for 500 pounds the priory of St. Germand and nearly two hundred acres. In consequence Eliot became a vassal of Queen Elizabeth. He held this Cornish property in fee simply of the Crown by service of one-fiftieth of a knight's fee.
John Eliot made the former home of the priors his residence, but not until he had completely rebuilt it and had turned it into an attractive and extensive Tudor dwelling which he called Port Eliot. . . . When he died on April 29, 1577, at the ripe age of seventy-four, he left his wife Grace and his nephew Richard as his executors and RESIduary legatees.
* A.L. Rowse, "Tudor Cornwall" (London, 1941), p. 202, speaking of John Eliot, the uncle of Richard and great undle of Sir John, says he was not rich and that the total value of his estate was 34 pounds 5s. a year. This figure is substantiated by Port Eliot Title Deeds, no. 20a. But as a measure of the real wealth of the Eliots it is misleading. Its source is a valuation for the Court of Wards and Liverires presented in 1578 to enable Richard Eliot to obatin livery of his uncle's estate. Such a valuation was notoriously low in comparison with the actual return from the properties involved. For examply, in 1578 and again 1635 under the same conditions Port Eliot was valued at 7 pounds per annum. But in 1632 Port Eliot actually produced an income of 66 pounds 15s. 10d. P.E. Munim. Room, Manor of Cuddenbeak Title Deeds, Bundle LXIX. Consequently, it can safely be said that the actual annual value of the estate inherited by Richard Eliot from his uncle John must have amounted at least to 300 pounds, if not a good deal more.
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Abt 1503 - 1577 (74 years)
Occupation