One of the oldest towns in Cornwall, Liskeard had grown up near Bodmin moor and profited from the tinworks established there. The stannary courts were often held in the town, but it never became as central to the tin trade as Lostwithiel or Truro. According to Leland it was ‘the best market town ... in Cornwall saving Bodmin’, but by the mid 16th century it was no longer prospering, and it was included in the Act of 1540 for the re-edification of towns westward (32 Hen. VIII, c.19).
Helston, a duchy of Cornwall borough and a coinage town, had received its first royal charter in 1201; its privileges were confirmed in 1512, 1547 and 1553. In the absence of borough records for the period little is known of its municipal government, but the Elizabethan charter incorporating it as the mayor and aldermen possibly did little more than ratify the existing position.
The borough of Grampound belonged with the adjacent manor of Tybesta to the duchy of Cornwall and in 1539 it paid a fee-farm of £12 to the duchy. Its earliest known charter had been granted in the first half of the 14th century by John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, and royal confirmation had recognized it as a free borough with a guild merchant and freedom from toll throughout the county; it had two fairs and a market. There was a hundred court in the town, and the burgesses held lands and mills by charter of the duchy. Later confirmations of its privileges included two in 1515 and 1547.
In the later middle ages the name Launceston was used, sometimes confusingly, to cover three separate townships, Launceston St. Stephen, Dunheved and Newport. The most important of these, Dunheved, was founded soon after the Conquest, and as head of the honor of Launceston became the judicial headquarters of Cornwall with the county gaol in the castle. But its position, so near the border with Devon, made it highly inconvenient of access, and by the early 16th century Lostwithiel had largely superseded it.
The borough of Camelford belonged with the manor of Helston-in-Triggshire to the duchy of Cornwall. It had received its first charter in 1260 and several confirmations of its privileges in the 14th and 15th centuries; the charter of 1475 was confirmed in 1553. In the absence of municipal records few details have come to light about its administration, but it had a reeve, whose title was changed to mayor during the financial year beginning at Michaelmas 1552: Richard Cock held the office throughout the 1550s.
The harbour and township of Bossiney lay within the manor of Tintagel, which with the borough and castle belonged to the duchy of Cornwall: the manor was sometimes called Bossiney. By the reign of Henry VIII the castle was ruinous and although served by a constable and other officers it barely sufficed for a prison. The erosion of the castle by the sea and its neglect by the duchy had contributed to the decline of the settlement beneath its walls and the migration of many inhabitants to the township a mile away to the east.
Bodmin, a stannary town whose Saturday market was described by Leland as ‘like a fair for the confluence of people’, but which was included in the Act of 1540 for the re-edification of towns westward (32 Hen. VIII, c.19), had returned Members to the Parliament of 1295. Until the dissolution of Bodmin priory in September 1538 the prior was lord of the borough; successive medieval charters were granted to the prior, convent and ‘their’ burgesses, but the mayor and townsmen often quarrelled with the priors about their rights.
Little is known about the election of knights of the shire for Cornwall in the early 16th century. The writs were sent from Chancery to the duchy of Cornwall offices at Lostwithiel whence they were delivered to the sheriff. Although the sheriff owed his appointment to the duchy, the King merely ratifying its choice, he seems to have held shire elections without reference to the duchy and there is no evidence that the duchy expected him to return its nominees.
In 1506 Henry VII granted Chester a charter of incorporation and the status of a county in itself: except for the castle no part of the city remained within the jurisdiction of the chamberlain of the county palatine. The governing body consisted of a mayor, 24 aldermen and 40 common councilmen, who were elected annually. The recorder was ex officio an alderman. One of the sheriffs was chosen by the mayor, aldermen and the retiring pair of sheriffs, the other by the commonalty.
The petition of the inhabitants of the county palatine of Chester for its own and the city’s representation in Parliament was granted by the Act (34 and 35 Hen. VIII, c.13) passed during the second session of the Parliament of 1542. The petition had been occasioned by the abolition of the parliamentum of the county court at Chester castle, without the approval of which no laws and taxes had been imposed in the county palatine, but the claim was probably influenced by the recent enfranchisement of Wales.
