Research Notes:

"In the latter part of the 13th century "we arrive at William Frank Taillefer of Borlas, with whom the pedigree, which is capable of absolute documentary, proof commences." The word ' Frank ' in this compound is read ' french.' John, the son of William, being afterwards described as John Frank Taillefer, alias Tailfer, alias John Frank (i.e. French John) de Borlas, and in various legal documents in the reign of Edward II. he is styled John le Fraunke or John Frank. This John Frank Taillefer left two sons, Andrew and Noel. Andrew Frank Taillefer inherited Borlas Frank and left an only daiighter, Alice Frank Taillefer, who died s.p., and Borlas passed to her cousin german, Andrew, son of Noel Borlas, or de Borlas, from which time the name Taillefer ceased to be used. ¹

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Borlase, originally of Borlase, in the parish of St. Wenn, are said to be a Norman family, and to have borne the name of Taillefer or Talfer, from a castle in that country so called. The elder branch of this family became extinct in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the coheiresses married Tonkin and Bray. A younger son, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, married the heiress of Treluddra or Treludderow of Treluddra in Newlyn, where his family continued for five descents. Humphrey, the last survivor of the elder branch of this line (his son Nicholas having died before him without issue), was created a peer by James II., after his abdication; but he never enjoyed the title. He left his estate to the Borlases of Pendeen, in St. Just (Penwith), descended from Walter, a younger son of Walter Borlase, who married the heiress of Treluddra. The present representative of this family is John Borlase, Esq. (grandson of Dr. Borlase the historian of Cornwall), who succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father's first cousin, the Rev. Walter Borlase, late of Castle-Horneck, near Penzance, at which place the Borlases have resided about a century since their removal from Pendeen.

Before the branching off of the Treluddra family, the Borlases quartered the arms of Moyle, Trewinard, Kingdom, Boscawen, and Beare. Since that period, besides the match with Treluddra, they have married the heiresses of a younger branch of Pendarves and Smith. ²