St Germans

St. Germans was under the sole patronage of the Lords Eliot of Port Eliot, from 1815 Earls of St. Germans. The 1st Baron Eliot returned his sons for one seat and friends of government for the other, except in 1802. His heir tended to do likewise, returning in-laws and cousins for one seat. In 1806 the prime minister Lord Grenville was uncertain of Eliot’s support and the latter accused him of encouraging an opposition (chiefly at Liskeard but also at St. Germans) against the patron’s own brother-in-law Sir Joseph Yorke, 7 Nov. In reply (10 Nov.) Grenville denied that he intended any opposition and stated that he knew nothing of Yorke’s candidature.Fortescue mss. There was a rumour of opposition, afterwards denied, in the R. Cornw. Gazette, 1, 8 Nov. 1806. Possibly the last comment was an implied criticism of the fact that Eliot was not placing both seats at the disposal of friends of government, as his father had done in 1802.

No opposition to the patron materialized, though in 1814 a Whig agent reported:

Lord Eliot is outrageous about [Lord] Yarmouth’s having been using endeavours to overturn his interest in Liskeard and St Germans; ministers having made a disavowal of all knowledge of the transaction and have [sic] likewise remonstrated with him (Y[armouth]) on his conduct, as all the government proprietors have taken the alarm at the use attempted to be made of the influence of the duchy of Cornwall. We shall therefore soon see who is the most powerful, the favourite [Yarmouth] or the accredited ministry.Grey mss, Goodwin to Grey, 16 Sept. 1814.