Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flammock, Thomas
FLAMMOCK, THOMAS (d. 1497), rebel, usually described as a lawyer and attorney of Bodmin, was eldest son of Richard Flamank or Flammock of Boscarne, by Johanna or Jane, daughter of Thomas Lucombe of Bodmin (cf. Visitation of Cornwall, 1620, Harl. Soc. 71). The family is of great antiquity at Bodmin, having held the manor of Nanstallan in uninterrupted succession from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century (1817). In early times the name appeared as Flandrensis, Flemang, Flammank, and in other forms (Maclean). Thomas Flammock was the chief instigator of the Cornish rebellion of 1487. At the time Henry VII was attempting to collect a subsidy in Cornwall for the despatch of an army to Scotland to punish James IV for supporting Perkin Warbeck. Flammock argued that it was the business of the barons of the north, and of no other of the king's subjects, to defend the Scottish border, and that the tax was illegal. Working with another popular agitator and fellow-townsman, Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, he suggested that the Cornishmen should march on London and present a petition to the king setting forth their grievances, and urging the punishment of Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray, and other advisers of the king who were held responsible for his action. Flammock and Joseph modestly consented to lead the throng until more eminent men took their place. Rudely armed with bills and bows and arrows, a vast mob followed Flammock to Taunton, where they made their first display of violence and slew ‘the provost of Perin,’ i.e. Penryn. At Wells, James, lord Audley [see Tuchet, James], joined them and undertook the leadership. They marched thence by way of Salisbury and Winchester to Blackheath. London was panic-stricken; but the rebels had grown disheartened by the want of sympathy shown them in their long march. Giles, lord Daubeney, was directed to take the field with the forces which had been summoned for service in Scotland. On Saturday, 22 June 1497, Daubeney opened battle at Deptford Strand. At the first onset he was taken prisoner, but he was soon released, and the enemy, who had expected to be attacked on the Monday, and were thus taken by surprise, were soon thoroughly routed. Each side is said to have lost three hundred men, and fifteen hundred Cornishmen were taken prisoners. Audley, Flammock, and Joseph were among the latter. Audley was beheaded at Tower Hill. Flammock and Joseph were drawn, hanged, and quartered at Tyburn (24 June), and their limbs exhibited in various parts of the city. Most of their followers were pardoned. Flammock married Elizabeth, daughter of John Trelawny of Menwynick, and had a daughter Joanna, wife of Peter Fauntleroy.
[Bacon's Hist. of Henry VII; Thomas Gainsford's Hist. of Perkin Warbeck, 1618, in Harl. Miscellany, 1810, xi. 422–7; Stow's Annals, s. a. 1497; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. p. 1181; Maclean's Trigg Minor, i. 44, 279–84, ii. 518; Polwhele's Hist. of Cornwall, iv. 53–4; Hals's Hist. of Cornwall, p. 24.]