St Mawes (UK Parliament constituency)

Last updated

St Mawes
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
County Cornwall
Major settlements St Mawes
1562–1832
SeatsTwo
Replaced by West Cornwall

St Mawes was a rotten borough in Cornwall, England. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of England from 1562 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until it was abolished by the Great Reform Act in 1832.

Contents

History

The borough consisted of the manor of St Mawes, a decayed fishing port and market town in the west of Cornwall. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start.

The right to vote rested with the portreeve and "resident burgesses or free tenants", making it essentially a scot and lot borough (there were 87 voters in 1831), but the control of the "patron" was entirely secure. In practice the patron always worked in close collusion with the Crown, and the members returned were generally court nominees throughout the borough's existence. In the 1760s the Boscawen family (the Viscounts Falmouth) were considered to have the main influence over the choice of one member [1] and Robert Nugent over the other; [2] by the time of the Great Reform Act, the patronage had passed to the Marquess of Buckingham.

In 1831, the borough had a population of 459, and 95 houses.

Members of Parliament

1562–1629

ParliamentFirst memberSecond member
Parliament of 1563–1567 Oliver Carminow Edmund Sexton
Parliament of 1571 William Fleetwood Israel Amice
Parliament of 1572–1581 Rowland Hind Geoffrey Gates
Parliament of 1584–1585 William Onslow Christopher Southouse
Parliament of 1586–1587 Sampson Lennard Thomas Chaloner
Parliament of 1588–1589 John Potts Walter Cope
Parliament of 1593 Nicholas Fuller Henry Vincent
Parliament of 1597–1598 Michael Vyvyan Richard Orver
Parliament of 1601 Robert Killigrew Ralph Hare
Parliament of 1604–1611 Dudley Carleton Sir John Speccot
Addled Parliament (1614) Francis Vyvyan Sir Nicholas Smith
Parliament of 1621–1622 Edward Wrightington William Hockmore
Happy Parliament (1624–1625) John Arundell William Hockmore
Useless Parliament (1625) Sir James Fullerton Nathaniel Tomkins
Parliament of 1625–1626 Sir Henry Carey William Carr
Parliament of 1628–1629 Thomas Carey Hannibal Vyvyan
No Parliament summoned 1629–1640

1640–1832

YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party
April 1640 Dr George Parry Royalist Lord Sheffield Parliamentarian
November 1640 Richard Erisey Parliamentarian
January 1644Parry disabled from sitting – seat vacant
1647 William Priestley
December 1648Priestley and Erisey excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant
1653St Mawes was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 William Tredenham John Lampen [3]
May 1659 Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660 Sir William Tredenham Arthur Spry
1663 Sir Richard Vyvyan
1665 Joseph Tredenham
February 1679 Sidney Godolphin Henry Seymour
September 1679 Sir Joseph Tredenham
1685 Sir Peter Prideaux
1689 Sir Joseph Tredenham
March 1690 Henry Seymour Portman
April 1690 John Tredenham
1695 Seymour Tredenham
1696 Henry Seymour Portman
1698 Sir Joseph Tredenham
1705 Francis Godfrey
1707 John Tredenham
1710 Sir Richard Onslow Whig
1711 John Anstis
1713 Edward Rolt Francis Scobell
1715 William Lowndes John Chetwynd
1722 Sidney Godolphin Samuel Travers
1726 Samuel Molyneux
1727 Henry Vane Whig John Knight [4] Whig
1728 William East
1734 Richard Plumer
1741 Robert Nugent [5] James Douglas
1747 The Lord Sundon
1753 Sir Thomas Clavering
April 1754 Henry Seymour Conway Whig
December 1754 James Newsham [6]
1761 Edmund Nugent Richard Hussey
1768 George Boscawen
1770 Michael Byrne
1772 James Edward Colleton
1774 Viscount Clare [7] Hugh Boscawen
1784 (Sir) William Young [8] Tory
1790 Colonel John Graves Simcoe
1792 Thomas Calvert
1795 William Drummond
May 1796 George Nugent [9]
October 1796 Jeremiah Crutchley
1802 William Windham Tory
1806 Sir John Newport [10] Whig Scrope Bernard Tory
January 1807 William Shipley
July 1807 Viscount Ebrington Whig
1808 Earl Gower Whig
1809 Scrope Bernard-Morland Tory
1812 William Shipley
1813 Francis Horner Whig
1817 Joseph Phillimore Tory
1826 Sir Codrington Carrington Tory
1830 George Pigott Tory
1831 Sir Edward Sugden Tory
1832 Constituency abolished

Notes

  1. ↑ Page 145, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition – London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
  2. ↑ Page 147, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition – London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
  3. ↑ "Lampen,John, 1s John, of Petherdey, Cornwall, arm. Magdalen Hall, matric. 14 March 1633/4, aged 18; of Padreda, sheriff of Cornwall 1650 ; M.P. St Mawes 1659; his will dated April 1660, proved 25 May 1661. "Will of John Lampen of Linkinhorne, Cornwall" See Foster's Parliamentary Dictionary"; s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Lampen, John; and John Lampen has his poll tax listed as £10
  4. ↑ Knight was also elected for Sudbury, which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Mawes
  5. ↑ Nugent was re-elected in 1715, but had also been elected for Bristol, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for St Mawes
  6. ↑ Took the surname Craggs from 1756
  7. ↑ Created The Earl Nugent (in the Peerage of Ireland) in 1776
  8. ↑ Succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1788
  9. ↑ Nugent was also elected for Buckingham, which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Mawes
  10. ↑ Newport was also elected for Waterford, which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Mawes

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References

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