Commons 1558-1603

‘Of mean plight’, St. Ives was governed in this period by a portreeve and 12 other councilmen. The portreeve was chosen by a wider body of 24 burgesses. First enfranchised in 1558, probably through the agency of the 2nd Earl of Bedford, St. Ives, until the last Parliament of the reign, returned only outsiders, with the sole exception of John Newman (1571), and he, though resident in the borough, was a local official who may have owed his return to a patron. Bedford was responsible for the return of (at least) both the 1559 Members, one in 1572 (Thomas Randolph) and John Harington I (1563).

The borough of Penryn, together with the manor of Penryn Foreign, belonged to the bishops of Exeter. The leading family of the district, the Killigrews of Arwennack, had a lease of Penryn Foreign and a disputed lease of the fee farm of the borough. There was a portreeve and burgesses, but the borough was not incorporated until the reign of James I. Judging by the surviving Elizabethan returns, elections were conducted by the portreeve, in the presence of up to a dozen burgesses.

Lostwithiel was the administrative centre of the duchy of Cornwall. Its privileges were confirmed in 1565 and a charter of incorporation granted in 1608. William Kendall (1571) was the only known Elizabethan MP who was a local man.

Mitchell, alias Michael, alias Medishole, was owned by the Arundell family of Lanherne, the lords of the manor with which the borough was co-extensive. The borough government was rudimentary. The parliamentary returns for 1584, 1589 and 1597 state that election was made by the bailiff and burgesses, but the return for 1563 mentions the constable, burgesses and free inhabitants. In 1572 Sir John Arundell of Lanherne is named as one of the burgesses. In that year, and again in 1601, the portreeve is specified but not a constable or bailiff.

Newport adjoined Dunheved, and the two together constituted Launceston. Newport originally belonged to Launceston priory, around which it was built, but at the dissolution of the monasteries was annexed to the duchy of Cornwall. It first sent Members to Parliament at some time between 1512 and 1529. The surviving Elizabethan parliamentary returns usually state that election was made by the two bailiffs and a number of burgesses. In 1572 a portreeve was mentioned.

By the opening of this period East Looe was part of the duchy of Cornwall. After a lapse of time it resumed sending Members to Parliament in 1571, probably through the influence of the 2nd Earl of Bedford, lord warden of the stannaries and lord lieutenant of Cornwall. Its right to do so was challenged in the House 6 Apr. 1571. Some years later in an Exchequer suit concerning the market, the leading inhabitants claimed, wrongly, that East Looe ‘now is and at all time heretofore hath been charged with the setting forth and finding of burgesses to her Majesty’s Parliament’.

West Looe, also known as Port Looe and Portpighan, by the beginning of this period was part of the duchy of Cornwall. In 1574 it received a charter of incorporation which describes the governing body as a mayor, 12 principal burgesses and a steward. Membership of this council, a self-perpetuating body, was for life, but the rest of the inhabitants helped choose a new mayor each year from two nominated principal burgesses.

Liskeard, a duchy of Cornwall borough, had sent Members to Parliament since the reign of Edward I. It owed its prosperity to fairs and markets and to its position—re-established early in Elizabeth’s reign—as one of the ‘coinage’ towns of the stannaries.Carew’s Surv. Cornw. ed. Halliday, 202; CPR, 1566-9, p. 236. Elizabeth confirmed its privileges by charter in 1587. The town was governed by a common council of nine capital burgesses or governors, from whom a mayor was chosen each year.

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’.E. F. Halliday, Richard Carew of Anthony.

Helston, a stannary town, was part of the duchy of Cornwall. The borough’s privileges were confirmed in 1559, and it was incorporated as the mayor and aldermen of Helston in 1585. Government was vested in the mayor, four aldermen and a number of burgesses.G. R. Lewis, The Stannaries, 126; Duchy of Cornwall, receiver gen. accts.; Weinbaum, Charters, 115; H. S. Toy, Hist. Helston, 166, 495.