John Killigrew (died 1584)

The Killigrew family was long established in Penryn and St Budock, Cornwall.[4] John was the eldest son and heir of John Killigrew (died 1567) of Arwenack, the first Governor of Pendennis Castle appointed by King Henry VIII, by his wife Elizabeth Trewennard,[2] second daughter of James Trewennard of Trewennard, in the parish of St Erth, Cornwall.[1]He was the eldest of five sons (Peter, Thomas, Henry[5][6] and William Killigrew[7]) and had five sisters.

His brothers, particularly Peter and Thomas Killigrew, had been engaged in piracies off the Irish coast during Edward's reign.[8][9] Together with his father, John opposed the Catholic Queen Mary I (1553–1558) and her husband, Philip II of Spain, and used his fleet of ships to keep the Protestant exiles in France abreast of political developments and to attack Spanish shipping in the Channel. In 1556, he was imprisoned by Mary with his father in the Fleet, but released after three weeks.[3][10] Peter Killigrew maintained his activities in opposition to Mary's reign,[11] while his brother Henry Killigrew remained an exile abroad.[12]

Upon the succession of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), John was restored to royal favour. He was knighted on 25 December 1576.[3]

He became notorious for engaging in cattle theft, "evil usage in keeping of a castle" (presumably Pendennis) and as a Justice of the peace for abuses in arranging the quarter sessions. Having been appointed a Commissioner to inquire into piracy, he himself was heavily engaged in that activity and traded with smugglers and pirates who frequented the waters around Arwenack. He was the subject of an official investigation in 1565.

In January 1582, both he and his wife, Mary Wolverston,[13] were suspected of involvement in a notorious act of piracy concerning a Spanish ship which had sheltered from a storm in an anchorage opposite Arwenack. It was said that he and his wife had acted together to overpower or murder the crew and steal the cargo of cloth, before ordering the ship to be disposed of in Ireland.[3][14]

Monument to Sir John and Dame Mary Killigrew at St Budock. Image: Tim Green.

He married Mary Wolverston, a daughter of Philip Wolverston (often described as a "gentleman pirate") of Wolverston Hall in Suffolk, and widow of Henry Knyvett. Their children included:[1]

• John Killigrew V (c. 1557 – 1605), of Arwenack, eldest son and heir, three times MP for Penryn in 1584, 1586 and 1597, and Vice-Admiral of Cornwall and like his father and grandfather Captain of Pendennis Castle (1584–98).[15]
• Simon Killigrew[16]
• Thomas Killigrew [16]
• Mary Killigrew, who died unmarried
• Katherine Killigrew (died 1598), youngest daughter, who was the third wife of Sir Henry Billingsley (c. 1538 – 1606) Lord Mayor of London.[1][17]

He died on 5 March 1584. He was buried in St Budock's Church, near Arwenack, where there is a mural monument to him, erected by his grandson in 1617, showing effigies of him and his wife facing each other kneeling in prayer.[2] He died heavily in debt: his brother, the leading diplomat Sir Henry Killigrew, paid off some of his more pressing debts, but his son John entered on an inheritance which was already insolvent, and died a ruined man in 1605.[3][15]

In the historical novel The Grove of Eagles by Winston Graham, Sir John's formidable widow Mary Wolverston ("old Lady Killigrew") is arguably the dominant character - the protagonist's highly intimidating grandmother. In her bitter old age, she regards the Killigrew family with contempt, but acknowledges that her husband was probably "the best of a poor lot".

Additionally, he appears in the novel The Sea Hawk by Raphael Sabatini, and in With the Knights of Malta by Douglas Valder Duff (using the pseudonym of Peter Wickloe).