‘Those buildings commonly known by the name of Launceston’, wrote Richard Carew, ‘consist of two boroughs, Dunheved and Newport’. Dunheved was the old borough around Launceston castle, Newport the more recently enfranchised borough by the ruins of Launceston priory. The Elizabethan returns and Crown Office lists were usually consistent in making the distinction, political commentators of later periods less so.’
Once hand in glove with the local pirates, the citizens of Fowey, according to Richard Carew, made ‘great amendment of their former defects’ and turned to honest trade. The borough first sent MPs to Westminster in 1571, and the implication must be that the 2nd Earl of Bedford, lord lieutenant of the county and lord warden of the stannaries, was behind this. But there was evidently a breakdown in communications, for the borough’s right to the franchise was challenged—unsuccessfully—in the House on 6 Apr. that year.
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.
Camelford, a duchy of Cornwall borough in the parish of Lanteglos, north of Bodmin, received its first charter from Henry III. The borough probably began to send Members to Parliament in the reign of Edward VI. Queen Mary confirmed its privileges in 1553.Cal. Charter Rolls, ii. 26; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, ii. 327. The principal officer was the mayor or portreeve whose post was apparently hereditary: Christopher Cock appears as mayor on every surviving parliamentary return between 1555 and 1563, and his son John from 1572 to 1604.Maclean, ii.
John Trelawny of Menheniot (1559, 1563) was descended from an old Cornish family and closely related to the Courtenays, earls of Devon. Richard Chamond of Launcells (1559, 1563, 1572) had already represented the county twice in previous reigns. As sheriff (1562-3) he was unable to stand at the general election in 1563, but came in at a by-election in 1566 caused by Trelawny’s death. Chamond’s being sheriff enabled Peter Edgecombe to win his first county seat in 1563.
At the accession of Elizabeth, Bodmin, formerly part of Bodmin priory, was governed by a mayor and 36 burgesses. In 1563 it received a charter of incorporation, confirmed in 1594, vesting the parliamentary elections in the mayor and all 36 burgesses, but elevating 12 of the 36 into capital burgesses, of whom the mayor was to be one.Weinbaum, Charters, 12-13. A formal stipulation was made that the charges and costs of its MPs should be met by the borough, but no evidence has been found of any such payments in this period.
The manor of Tintagel, which belonged to the duchy of Cornwall, received a charter and two confirmations of its liberties during the medieval period. By 1547, however, when it probably first sent Members to Parliament, the names of two hamlets within its boundaries, Bossiney and Trevena, were used to describe the parliamentary borough. The earliest election return was made out by the burgesses of Trevena, and later returns use sometimes ‘Bossiney’, sometimes ‘Trevena’, and sometimes ‘Bossineyalias Trevena’.
The chamberlain of Cheshire (the county palatine of Chester) was responsible for conveying the election writ to the sheriff. During this period the chamberlain were the 3rd Earl of Derby (1559-65), the Earl of Leicester (1565-88), the 4th Earl of Derby (1588-93) and Lord Keeper Egerton (1593-1603). They do not appear to have exercised undue influence on the county elections, which followed the usual pattern of the period, with the leading landowning families taking their turn as knights of the shire.
Chester was governed by 24 aldermen, 40 common councilmen and the freemen. The principal officers were the mayor, two sheriffs (to whom the election writs were sent direct), the recorder and the town clerk, known as the clerk of the pentice.
Chipping Wycombe had been owned since 1483 by the dean and chapter of Windsor, who, about 1568, leased the fee farm to Robert Christmas, a servant of the Earl of Leicester. Christmas himself came in for the borough in 1571, and within the next three years he conveyed it to one Robert Raunce, who returned his friend Geoffrey Calfield in 1584. The dean and chapter were themselves responsible for John Morley I (1584), a courtier, and the ex-provost of Eton, Thomas Ridley (1586), who had married the daughter of the dean of Windsor, George Day.
