Tregony was a rotten borough in Cornwall which was represented in the Model Parliament of 1295, and returned two Members of Parliament to the English and later British Parliament continuously from 1562[1] to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
| Tregony | |
|---|---|
| Former borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
| 1562–1832 | |
| Seats | Two |
History
editThe borough consisted of the town of Tregony. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a settlement of little importance or wealth even to begin with, and was not incorporated as a municipal borough until sixty years after it began to return members to Parliament in 1563.
Tregony was a potwalloper borough, meaning that every (male) householder with a separate fireplace on which a pot could be boiled was entitled to vote. The apparently democratic nature of this arrangement was a delusion in a borough as small and poor as Tregony, where the residents could not afford to defy their landlord and, indeed, regarded their vote as a means of income. Many of the houses in the borough were built purely for political purposes, and the borough itself was bought and sold for its political value on numerous occasions. In the 1760s, Viscount Falmouth (head of the Boscawen family) influenced the nomination to one of the two seats[2] and William Trevanion the other;[3] later the Earl of Darlington controlled both seats, together with others in Cornwall, but by the time of the Great Reform Act the patronage had been transferred again, to James Adam Gordon.
In 1831, the borough had a population of 1,127, and 234 houses. Nevertheless, because of the wide franchise it had a comparatively large electorate for the time, between 260 and 300 voters.
Members of Parliament
editMPs 1559–1629
edit| Parliament | First member | Second member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parliament of 1558–9 | Peter Osborne | Adrian Poynings | |
| Parliament of 1563–1567 | Edward Ameredith | Giles Laurence | |
| Parliament of 1571 | Sir Edward Hastings | Robert Dormer | |
| Parliament of 1572–1581 | William Knollys | Peter Wentworth | |
| Parliament of 1584–1585 | Sir John St Leger | Richard Grafton | |
| Parliament of 1586–1587 | Richard Trevanion | Oliver Carminowe | |
| Parliament of 1588–1589 | Richard Penkevell | Christopher Walker | |
| Parliament of 1593 | John Snow | Arnold Oldisworth | |
| Parliament of 1597–1598 | Sir Edward Denny | Henry Birde | |
| Parliament of 1601 | Lewis Darte | Thomas Trevor | |
| Parliament of 1604–1611 | Henry Pomeroy | Richard Garveigh | |
| Addled Parliament (1614) | William Hakewill | Thomas Malet | |
| Parliament of 1621–1622 | |||
| Happy Parliament (1624–1625) | Peter Specott | Ambrose Manaton | |
| Useless Parliament (1625) | Sir Henry Carey | Sebastian Goode | |
| Parliament of 1625–1626 | Thomas Carey | Sir Robert Killigrew | |
| Parliament of 1628–1629 | Francis Rous | Sir John Arundell | |
| No Parliament summoned 1629–1640 | |||
MPs 1640–1832
editNotes
edit- ^ The writs for election were issued in 1562, so the constituency can be considered as having been established in that year, although Parliament did not meet until 12 January 1562/3, and is therefore generally called the Parliament of 1563 in New Style reckoning
- ^ Page 145, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
- ^ Page 148, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
- ^ Browne Willis lists Nicholas Borlace and Charles Trevanion as Members, but this is contradicted by other sources.
- ^ Boscawen was also elected for Truro, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Tregony.
- ^ This John Trevanion was NOT John Trevanion, the Civil War hero, who died in 1643.
- ^ William Trevanion died 1767 according to 'General history: Gentry', Magna Britannia: volume 3: Cornwall (1814), pp. XCVIII-CXVIII. Date accessed: 21 May 2008.
- ^ Created a baronet as Sir Alexander Leith, November 1775.
- ^ Created a baronet as Sir Lloyd Kenyon, July 1784.
- ^ At the 1826 election the Returning Officer made a double return, naming Lushington and Brougham, who had received the most votes, but also the two Tory candidates, James Adam Gordon and James Mackillop. The Committee decided that Lushington and Brougham had been duly elected.
References
edit
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
- W D Pink, 'The Parliamentary History of Tregony', The Western Antiquary, Volume VI, Part V (1886), 117-121 [2]
- J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
- Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 1.
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "T" (part 2)