Commons 1660-1690

Third in acreage among English counties, and with numerous small freeholders, Devon always seems to have held its county court at Exeter Castle, without adjournment to other local centres in this period. Polls were consequently exceptional and uncontested returns are frequently recorded. Monck, needless to say, was returned unopposed to the Convention, and his colleague Northcote, another Presbyterian, had worked his passage by taking a leading part in the Exeter disturbances of February 1660 in support of a free Parliament.

Although Derby was the only parliamentary borough in its county, it was able to resist pressure from the gentry and return townsmen to both seats in 1660 and 1661. The senior Member, John Dalton, had served as alderman under every regime since 1645, and his social position was not less remarkable than his politics; no other provincial shopkeeper was returned at the general election of 1661.

At the general election of 1660 the middle ground was occupied by Robert Eyre of Highlow, a recent convert to the Stuart cause, and John Ferrers, a loyalist who was too young to have taken part in the Civil War. On one flank they were opposed by John Gell, ‘the most rigid Presbyterian in the county’, on the other by Lord Mansfield, son of the Cavalier general in the north, and so debarred from standing under the last ordinance of the Long Parliament. A compromise was suggested, ‘though certainly that cannot consist with Mr Gell’s principles’.

The returning officer for Cockermouth was the bailiff, who was appointed in the court leet. Hence from the restoration of the borough in 1641 one of the seats was usually reserved for the nominee of the lords of the manor, the Percy earls of Northumberland and their heirs, who also held many of the burgages.

By the 17th century the corporation of Carlisle, consisting of 12 aldermen (from whom the mayor was elected) and a common council of 20, had come to control the freeman roll, and hence the franchise. The city retained a substantial garrison throughout the period, and the governor often exercised a decisive influence. The cathedral interest cannot have been negligible, especially under Dean (subsequently Bishop) Smith (1672-84), the step-father of Sir George Fletcher.

Throughout the period the Howards of Naworth and Sir George Fletcher of Hutton played a major role in the county, but from 1665 Sir John Lowther of Whitehaven, despite the handicaps of constant ill health and long absences in London, steadily improved his interest, eclipsing the older families like the Curwens, Huddlestons and Dalstons, till by 1689 he had acquired a secure if tactful dominance. At the general election of 1660 the senior seat went to Charles Howard, a prominent figure at the Protector’s Court, but now a scarcely concealed Royalist.

Although the freemen of Truro made repeated attempts to claim the franchise, all the elections in this period were decided on the votes of the corporation, consisting of the mayor, the recorder, four aldermen and 20 ‘capital burgesses’. This body also nominated the stannators of Tywarnwhaile. Until the surrender of the charter in 1684 the Presbyterian Hugh Boscawen dominated the corporation, which obediently returned his brother Edward to five Parliaments.

Under a charter of James I the corporation of Tregony consisted of the mayor, recorder and eight ‘capital burgesses’. The parliamentary franchise was very wide, being open to all householders. As lord of the manor Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan might have been expected to dominate the borough. But, perhaps because he chose to concentrate on maintaining his interest at Truro and in the county, he was by no means secure from his rival Charles Trevanion of Caerhayes.

The corporation of Saltash, consisted of ten aldermen (all burgage-holders) from whom the mayor was elected every year. A substantial proportion of the burgage tenements was in the hands of the Buller family of Shillingham, who also owned the advowson. The size of the electorate precluded independence of spirit: when disaster struck the Bullers, the borough passed from their pocket to the Granvilles’.Luders, Controverted Elections, ii. 122-5; Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornw. iv. 170-1.

St. Mawes consisted of a small fishing village and Henry VIII’s still serviceable castle. The returning officer was the portreeve or mayor, appointed at the court leet of Tolverne manor, which had recently been acquired by the Tredenhams. The franchise was in the ‘free and sworn tenants’. During this period Sir Joseph Tredenham acquired complete control of the manor by first worsting and then absorbing the older interest of the Vyvyans, hereditary captains of St. Mawes Castle since Elizabethan times.Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornw. ii. 303-4, 307; iv. 74; W. P. Courtney, Parl.