Callington

Callington was the last Cornish borough to be enfranchised.Oldfield, Rep. Hist. 253It was jointly owned by Sir William Paulet 3rd Marquess of Winchester and William, 7th Lord Mountjoy, but in a number of cases no connexion is obvious between either of these noblemen and the man elected. This applies to Thomas Lawton, a London lawyer and one of the first two MPs. The other was also a London lawyer, who, however, had been retained by Mountjoy in the past. In 1586 a third London lawyer, Aylworth, was returned with William Herle, a government agent who was trying to avoid his creditors. The 1589 MPs were a Henry Golding, whose identification is suspect, but who was probably a distant relation of Mountjoy, and Robert Worsley of the Lancashire family, who must have come in through a court connexion of one of the two borough owners. A court connexion must also have been responsible for both the Members returned in 1593. Local influence began to make itself felt in 1597 with the return of Henry Ferrers through Richard Carew of Antony, mayor of Callington. Carew may have been instrumental in John Egerton’s return to that Parliament, or this may have been due to Winchester, but in either event he was returned because he was the son of the lord keeper. The last two MPs of the reign were a servant of Cecil and a relative by marriage of the 4th Marquess of Winchester.