Grampound

Grampound was a duchy of Cornwall borough, forming part of the manor of Tybesta. The town was decayed in Elizabeth’s reign and, according to the antiquary Richard Carew, ‘the corporation but half replenished with inhabitants, who may better vaunt of their town’s antiquity, than the town of their ability’.4E. F. Halliday, Richard Carew of Anthony.

The borough sent Members to Parliament from the reign of Edward VI. Return was made by the mayor and burgesses. In 1584 the borough adopted the practice of sending up two separate indentures; the majority of these were ‘blanks’.

Three of Grampound’s 16 MPs owned property near the borough and secured their own return: Charles Trevanion, Richard Sayer and Richard Edgecombe II. Ralph Couche, also a Cornish landowner, owed his return in 1559 to his relatives, the Arundells of Lanherne. An Arundell connexion is also behind the return in 1559 of Sir John Radcliffe, secretary to the Duke of Norfolk: Radcliffe’s mother was an Arundell and the family brought him in when the Duke decided not to return him again for Castle Rising. The 1563 Members were nominees of the 2nd Earl of Bedford: Sir John Pollard, a Cornish landowner and former ward of the 1st Earl, and Christopher Perne, about whom nothing is known except that he lived in London and had a connexion with Bedford. On 29 Oct. 1566 a writ for the election of a new Member in place of Christopher Perne, reported to be a lunatic, was issued, but no return has been found. His replacement, John Dodmer, was a puritan London merchant. John Hussey II owed his seats at Grampound (1571, 1572) to his great-aunt Bridget’s marriage to the 2nd Earl of Bedford, who no doubt also secured William Stoughton’s return in 1584 on behalf of the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. A Bedford connexion might explain Edmund Slyfield’s return in 1572, although he was also related through his wife to the Arundells of Lanherne. Burghley was responsible for Thomas Cromwell’s return in 1586 and 1589, and Cecil influence was possibly also behind Sir John Grey’s return in 1601. John Herbert, master of requests, owed his return in 1586 to his cousin, Lady Warwick. Sir John Leigh, a Hampshire landowner, was the stepson of Sir William Killigrew who no doubt secured his seat at Grampound in 1597. How Edward Clere (a Norfolk landowner), Edward Jones (Gray’s Inn lawyer), Robert Newdigate II (Bedfordshire country gentleman) and John Astell (Gray’s Inn lawyer) secured their seats at Grampound has not been ascertained.