Commons 1754-1790

See WEST LOOE (1754-90 Section).

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.’Add. 32907, ff. 461-2. Still, nothing more about the alleged vulnerability of Eliot’s interest appears during this period.

Thomas Jones, Lord Edgcumbe’s agent, wrote about Launceston in 1760:Add. 32907, ff. 361-2.

Mr. Morice’s interest seems at present the prevailing one in the borough for both Members. Sir John St. Aubyn hath many friends in the town but in appearance he declines being further concerned. The Duke of Bedford hath also some friends there. A junction of those gentlemen might give Mr. Morice’s interest a great shock, if not entirely overturn it.

No determination about the right of election existed, and it was assumed to be in the corporation. This consisted of a mayor, four aldermen, and an unlimited number of freemen. The right to create freemen was assumed to be in the mayor and alderman. From 1754 to 1768 the Godolphin family, whose seat was five miles from Helston, had almost undisputed control over the borough. On the death of Francis, and Earl of Godolphin, in 1766, the interest at Helston passed to his grandson Francis, Marquess of Carmarthen.

The most permanent natural interest in the borough was in the Hawkins family, seated at Trewithen, two miles from Grampound; but during most of the period 1754-90 it was in abeyance. In 1754 Christopher Hawkins and Robert Andrews, auditor general of the duchy of Cornwall, controlled one seat, and Lord Edgcumbe the other. Two Government candidates were returned: Burrell on Edgcumbe’s, and Fanshawe on the Andrews-Hawkins interest; while St. Aubyn and Beauchamp were ‘proposed by the malcontents but without their knowledge’.Note on poll sheet in Hawkins mss.

The main interest at Fowey was in the families of Rashleigh and Edgcumbe: Fowey being a port, there was also a certain Government interest; and as it was a decaying port, candidates were welcomed who could bring ‘some kind of trade’ to it.Thomas Pitt’s survey of Cornish boroughs, 2 Aug. 1747, HMC Fortescue, i. 127. And George, 3rd Lord Edgcumbe, wrote to Newcastle, 26 June 1761, on the vacancy caused by his succeeding to the peerage, that agents were

Lord Edgcumbe’s agent, Thomas Jones, wrote about Camelford in June 1760:

In 1754 Callington was controlled by Lady Orford, heiress of the Rolle family, who owned the manor and a good deal of property in the borough, and she selected the candidates: her friend John Sharpe and Sewallis Shirley, her second husband. When on a vacancy in 1756 her son George, 3rd Earl of Orford, thought of running a candidate of his own, he was warned by one of his agents that should the Orford interest be divided the borough might be lost; and that he would best support his future interest by acquiescing in his mother’s nomination.John Yeo to Orford, 30 Oct., 16 Nov.

Bossiney had no charter and the right of election had never been determined by Parliament. According to most authorities it was in the resident freemen, but in fact Bossiney behaved as a corporation borough. A titular mayor existed, associated with a number of so-called freemen, who exercised the franchise to the exclusion of their fellows. Though little is known of the method of recruitment, they appear to have constituted a self-perpetuating oligarchy. Their number varied: the highest known in this period was 28 in 1767;Cory Carpenter to Lady Bute, 22 Nov.