David Treffry, a member of the old Cornish family of Treffry, was born at Porthpean in 1926.
After the death in 1808 of William Esco Treffry, it was inherited together with the family estates by his nephew Joseph Thomas Austen, who changed his name by deed poll to Joseph Treffry.
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Home of the Treffry family since the thirteenth century, the original structure was a fifteenth-century tower, which was defended against the French in 1475 by Dame Elizabeth Treffry.
Sir John Treffry of Fowey fought under the Black Prince at the Battle of Crécy, and captured the Royal Banner of France, for which he was awarded the honour of Knight Banneret on the battlefield, by the Black Prince and his Coat of Arms charged with the fleur-de-lis of France.
It was much lighter than the similarly-constructed Cornwall Railway viaducts that were built a few years later, and very different from the imposing granite Treffry Viaduct built by Treffry for his Par tramway.