St Mawes

<p>The patronage of St. Mawes was shared between <a href="/landingpage/58265" title="John Knight" class="link">John Knight</a>, who became lord of the manor by purchasing the Tredenham estates c.1710,<a class='fnlink' id='t1' href='#fn1'>1<span>W. P. Courtney, <em>Parl. Rep. Cornw.</em> 92.</span></a> and <a href="/landingpage/57362" title="Hugh Boscawen" class="link">Hugh Boscawen</a>, later Lord Falmouth, governor of its castle and the Government’s electoral manager in Cornwall, who had much property in the vicinity. In 1722, according to a petition of the defeated candidates, an agent of <a href="/landingpage/59056" title="Nicholas Vincent’s" class="link">Nicholas Vincent’s</a>, Falmouth’s right-hand man in Cornwall, offered £50 a vote to the inhabitants.<a class='fnlink' id='t2' href='#fn2'>2<span><em>CJ</em>, xx, 232.</span></a> On Knight’s death in 1733 one seat passed under the control of his widow, who placed it at the disposal of Walpole in 1734.<a class='fnlink' id='t3' href='#fn3'>3<span>Walpole to Mrs. Knight, 4 Apr. 1734, Stowe mss 142, f. 104.</span></a> In 1737 she married Robert Nugent, with the result that, as <a href="/landingpage/58689" title="Thomas Pitt" class="link">Thomas Pitt</a> wrote in October 1740,</p><blockquote><p>the next election is secured to Mr. Nugent and a person to be recommended by Lord Falmouth. <a href="/landingpage/57780" title="Mr. Edgcumbe" class="link">Mr. Edgcumbe</a> [who had succeeded Falmouth as government manager] endeavoured to get the mayor by giving his son a living. The son has the living and Mr. Nugent has the mayor.<a class='fnlink' id='t4' href='#fn4'>4<span>Chatham mss.</span></a></p></blockquote><p>The 2nd Lord Egmont noted, c.1749-50: ‘St. Mawes— in Lord Falmouth and Mr. Nugent’.</p>