Helston

No determination about the right of election at Helston existed, but it was assumed to be in the corporation, a close body, consisting of the mayor, four aldermen, and an unlimited number of freemen. The patrons were the Godolphin family, whose seat was five miles away and who had property in the town. From 1715 to 1741 inclusive, Francis, 2nd Earl of Godolphin, a member of Walpole’s Administration and recorder of Helston, returned both Members, most of them placemen nominated by the Government. In 1740 Thomas Pitt, the Prince of Wales’s Cornish election manager, described Helston as ‘at the absolute disposal of Lord Godolphin’.Chatham mss. In 1747, however, he was successful in securing the return of a follower of the Prince, John Evelyn, who had formerly been returned for the borough as a government supporter. In the 2nd Lord Egmont’s electoral survey, c.1749-50, Helston is described as divided ‘between the Prince and Lord Godolphin’. After Frederick’s death in 1751 it reverted to the undisputed control of Lord Godolphin.