in the freemen
Number of voters: about 50
| Date | Candidate | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Apr. 1754 | EDMUND NUGENT | |
| PHILIP STANHOPE | ||
| Dec. 1759 | PHILIP STEPHENS vice Nugent, appoint to office | |
| 30 Mar. 1761 | PHILIP STEPHENS | |
| ANTHONY CHAMPION | ||
| 22 Mar. 1768 | EDWARD ELIOT | |
| SAMUEL SALT | ||
| 11 Oct. 1774 | EDWARD GIBBON | |
| SAMUEL SALT | ||
| 12 July 1779 | GIBBON re-elected after appointment to office | |
| 9 Sept. 1780 | WILBRAHAM TOLLEMACHE | |
| SAMUEL SALT | ||
| 5 Apr. 1784 | EDWARD JAMES ELIOT | |
| JOHN ELIOT | ||
| 6 Feb. 1786 | EDWARD JAMES ELIOT re-elected after appointment to office |
The borough interest was in Edward Eliot, but his hold was not as absolute as at St. Germans. Thomas Jones, Lord Edgcumbe’s agent, wrote in June 1760: ‘Mr. Eliot rules there at present, though probably his interest is not so firmly established as to be impregnable from every quarter.’1Add. 32907, ff. 461-2. Still, nothing more about the alleged vulnerability of Eliot’s interest appears during this period. But when in 1780 Eliot, disagreeing in politics with Edward Gibbon, refused to re-elect him, this was one of the arguments he used:2Add. 34885, ff. 111-12.
The most zealous friends I have in Liskeard declare decidedly against choosing you again, so that if I were ever so desirous of prevailing on them it is out of my power.
Gibbon, on 8 Sept., replied with an ironic reference to the electors of Liskeard ‘whom you so gravely introduce’. And in his Autobiography he remarks: ‘the electors of Liskeard are commonly of the same opinion as Mr. Eliot’.