Avery Cornburgh (d.1487) of Bere Ferrers (Devon) and Dovers (Essex) – a Lancastrian, Yorkist, and Tudor household servant – was one of the appreciable numbers of crown servants utilised in local government during the fifteenth century. Serving in Cornwall and Essex as JP, MP, sheriff, and commissioner, he was prominent in Cornish affairs as a result of the positions he enjoyed in the Duchy of Cornwall. This case study of his career in the royal household and Duchy of Cornwall and associations with magnates and gentry in South-West England – (re-)constructed from eclectic sources (including Duchy of Cornwall (and other) archives) – provides an insight into local and national politics in the later fifteenth century: Cornburgh’s Duchy and royal service culminated with his appointments as Under-Treasurer of England (under Richard III), and Keeper of the Wardrobe (under Henry VII).