St Mawes was a rotten borough

Rotten borough

A "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....

 in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs)) to the House of Commons of England

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 from 1562 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain

House of Commons of Great Britain

The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of the Parliament of Scotland, as one of the most significant...

 from 1707 to 1800, and to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until it was abolished by the Great Reform Act in 1832.

History

The borough consisted of the manor of St Mawes

St Mawes

St Mawes is a small town opposite Falmouth, on the Roseland Peninsula on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies on the east bank of the Carrick Roads, a large waterway created after the Ice Age from an ancient valley which flooded as the melt waters caused the sea level to...

, a decayed fishing port and market town in the west of Cornwall. Like most of the Cornish boroughs

Cornish rotten boroughs

The Cornish rotten boroughs were one of the most striking anomalies of the Unreformed House of Commons in the Parliament that ruled Britain before the Reform Act of 1832...

 enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period

Tudor period

The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

, it was a rotten borough from the start.

The right to vote rested with the portreeve

Portreeve

A portreeve, or 'port warden' is a historical British political appointment with a fluctuating role which evolved over time.The origins of the position are in the reign of Edward the Elder, who, in order to ensure that taxes were correctly exacted, forbade the conducting of trades outside of a...

 and "resident burgesses or free tenants", making it essentially a scot and lot

Scot and lot

Scot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English medieval boroughs, applied to householders who were assessed for a tax paid to the borough for local or national purposes.They were usually members of a merchant guild.Before the Reform Act 1832, those who paid scot and bore...

 borough (there were 87 voters in 1831), but the control of the "patron" was entirely secure. In practice the patron always worked in close collusion with the Crown, and the members returned were generally court nominees throughout the borough's existence. In the 1760s the Boscawen family (the Viscounts Falmouth

Viscount Falmouth

Viscount Falmouth is a title that has been created twice, first in the Peerage of England, and then in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1674 for George FitzRoy, illegitimate son of King Charles II by Barbara Villiers. He was created Earl of...

) were considered to have the main influence over the choice of one member and Robert Nugent

Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent

Robert Craggs-Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent PC was an Irish politician and poet.-Background:The son of Michael Nugent and Mary, daughter of Robert Barnewall, 9th Baron Trimlestown, he was born at Carlanstown, County Westmeath...

 over the other; by the time of the Great Reform Act, the patronage had passed to the Marquess of Buckingham.

In 1831, the borough had a population of 459, and 95 houses.

1562-1629

Parliament	First member	Second member
Parliament of 1563-1567	Oliver Carminow Oliver Carminow Oliver Carminow or Carminowe , of Fentongollan in Cornwall, was an English Member of Parliament. He represented St Mawes , Truro and Tregony . He married Mary Coryton, daughter of Peter Coryton, and left two daughters but no sons...	Edmund Sexton
Parliament of 1571	William Fleetwood	Israel Amice
Parliament of 1572-1581	Rowland Hind	Jeffry Gate
Parliament of 1584-1585	William Onslow	Christopher Southouse
Parliament of 1586-1587	Sampson Lennard Sampson Lennard Sampson Lennard , of Chevening in Kent, was an English Member of Parliament who represented an unusually large number of different constituencies during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I....	Thomas Chaloner Thomas Chaloner (naturalist) Sir Thomas Chaloner was an English naturalist.-Life:He was the son of statesman and poet Sir Thomas Chaloner. He was tutor to Prince Henry, son of James I, and was also responsible for introducing alum manufacturing to England. He was Member of Parliament for St Mawes in 1586 and for Lostwithiel...
Parliament of 1588-1589	?	?
Parliament of 1593	Nicholas Fuller Nicholas Fuller (lawyer) Sir Nicholas Fuller was an English barrister and Member of Parliament. After studying at Christ's College, Cambridge, Fuller became a barrister of Gray's Inn...	Henry Vincent
Parliament of 1597-1598	Michael Vyvyan	Richard Orver
Parliament of 1601	Robert Killigrew Robert Killigrew Sir Robert Killigrew was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1629. He served as Ambassador the the United Provinces.-Life:...	Ralph Hare
Parliament of 1604-1611	Dudley Carleton Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester was an English art collector, diplomat and Secretary of State.-Early life:He was the second son of Antony Carleton of Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire, and of Jocosa, daughter of John Goodwin of Winchendon, Buckinghamshire...	Sir John Speccot
Addled Parliament (1614) Addled Parliament The Addled Parliament was the second Parliament of England of the reign of James I of England , which sat between 5 April and 7 June 1614...	Francis Vyvyan Francis Vyvyan Sir Francis Vyvyan , of Trelowarren in Cornwall, was an English Member of Parliament ; his surname is sometimes spelt Vivian...	Sir Nicholas Smith Nicholas Smith (MP) Nicholas Smith was an English politician. He was a Member of Parliament for Truro, Cornwall in 1593. He was also MP for St Mawes in 1614.-References:...
Parliament of 1621-1622	Edward Wrightington	John Hockmere
Happy Parliament (1624-1625) Happy Parliament The Happy Parliament was the fourth and last Parliament of England of the reign of King James I, sitting from 19 February 1624 to 24 May 1624 and then from 2 November 1624 to 16 February 1625...	John Arundell John Arundell (born 1576) Sir John Arundell , nicknamed "Jack for the King", was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1640. He was Royalist governor of Pendennis Castle during the English Civil War....	William Hockmere
Useless Parliament (1625) Useless Parliament The Useless Parliament was the first Parliament of England of the reign of King Charles I, sitting only from June until August 1625. It gained its name because it transacted no significant business, making it 'useless' from the king's point of view...	Sir James Fullerton James Fullerton James "Jim" Herd Fullerton was an ice hockey coach and referee. In 1992 he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.-Early years:...	Nathaniel Tomkins
Parliament of 1625-1626	Sir Henry Carey Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth was an English nobleman and translator born in Bolton, Lancashire, England to Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth and Elizabeth Trevannion. On 6 November 1652 Henry married Martha Cranfield daughter of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex and Elizabeth Shepard...	William Carr
Parliament of 1628-1629	Thomas Carey Thomas Carey (died 1634) Thomas Carey was an English Member of Parliament.The second son of Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth, he represented Helston , Tregony and St Mawes . He lived at Sunninghill Park in Berkshire and died in 1634, and was buried in Westminster Abbey...	Hannibal Vyvyan Hannibal Vyvyan (born c. 1598) Hannibal Vyvyan was an English Member of Parliament ; his surname is sometimes spelt Vivian. The fourth son of Hannibal Vyvyan , also an MP, he represented St Mawes in the Parliament of 1628...
No Parliament summoned 1629-1640

1640-1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640 Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....		Dr George Parry George Parry (MP) Sir George Parry was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1640 to 1644.Parry was probably the son of Henry Parry, Bishop of Worcester and matriculated at Merton College, Oxford on 14 March 1617 aged 16. He was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1616 and...	Royalist Cavalier Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...		Lord Sheffield James Sheffield, Baron Sheffield James Sheffield, Baron Sheffield was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England in 1640. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.Sheffield was the son of Edmund Sheffield and his wife Mariana Irwin...
November 1640 Long Parliament The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...					Richard Erisey	Parliamentarian Roundhead "Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
January 1644	Parry disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1647		William Priestley William Priestley William Priestley was a Halifax wool clothier. He had a strong interest in music, especially German and his personal library housed many unusual items of German choral music, which had formed much of the early repertory of the The Halifax Choral Society, with which he is credited with founding....
December 1648	Priestley and Erisey excluded in Pride's Purge Pride's Purge Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...  - both seats vacant
1653	St Mawes was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament Barebones Parliament Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Little Parliament, the Nominated Assembly and the Parliament of Saints, came into being on 4 July 1653, and was the last attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form before the installation of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector...  and the First First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the House....  and Second Second Protectorate Parliament The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons...  Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 Third Protectorate Parliament The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons...		William Tredenham William Tredenham Sir William Tredenham was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1662.Tredenham was the son of John Tredenham of Philly, Cornwall and his wife Elizabeth Molesworth, daughter of John Molesworth of Pencarrow Cornwall.In 1659, Tredenham was elected Member of...			John Lampen, junior John Lampen John Lampen is a Quaker Peace educator and writer. He was born in 1938. He is married to Diana Lampen. In 1987, he gave the Swarthmore Lecture, entitled Mending Hurts....
May 1659 Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....	Not represented in the restored Rump Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
April 1660		Sir William Tredenham William Tredenham Sir William Tredenham was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1662.Tredenham was the son of John Tredenham of Philly, Cornwall and his wife Elizabeth Molesworth, daughter of John Molesworth of Pencarrow Cornwall.In 1659, Tredenham was elected Member of...			Arthur Spry Arthur Spry Arthur Spry was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1679.Spry was the son of Thomas Spry and his wife Catherine Ashford, daughter of Arthur Ashford. He was the first member of the family to settle at Place, a property granted to the Spry family by Henry VIII, in the...
1663		Sir Richard Vyvyan Sir Richard Vyvyan, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Vyvyan, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1665...
1665		Joseph Tredenham
February 1679		Sidney Godolphin Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin Sir Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, KG, PC was a leading English politician of the late 17th and early 18th centuries...			Henry Seymour
September 1679		Sir Joseph Tredenham
1685		Sir Peter Prideaux
1689		Sir Joseph Tredenham
March 1690					Henry Seymour Portman
April 1690					John Tredenham
1695		Seymour Tredenham
1696		Henry Seymour Portman
1698		Sir Joseph Tredenham
1705					Francis Godfrey
1707		John Tredenham
1710					Sir Richard Onslow Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow PC was a British Whig Member of Parliament, known as Sir Richard Onslow, 2nd Baronet from 1688 until 1716. He served as the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1708 until 1710 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1714 until 1715...	Whig
1711		John Anstis John Anstis John Anstis was an English officer of arms and antiquarian. He rose to the highest heraldic office in England and became Garter King of Arms in 1718 after years of plotting.-Early life:...
1713		Edward Rolt			Francis Scobell
1715		William Lowndes			John Chetwynd John Chetwynd, 2nd Viscount Chetwynd John Chetwynd, 2nd Viscount Chetwynd , diplomat and politician, was the second son of John Chetwynd and the brother of Walter Chetwynd, 1st Viscount Chetwynd. He succeeded to that Irish peerage in 1736 by virtue of a special remainder....
1722		Sidney Godolphin			Samuel Travers
1726					Samuel Molyneux Samuel Molyneux Samuel Molyneux FRS , son of William Molyneux, was an 18th-century member of the British parliament from Kew and an amateur astronomer whose work with James Bradley attempting to measure stellar parallax led to the discovery of the aberration of light...
1727		Henry Vane Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington PC was an English peer, the son of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard.On 2 September 1725, he married Lady Grace Fitzroy, daughter of Charles Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Southampton and they had seven children.Vane was Whig MP for Launceston from 1726 to 1727, St Mawes...	Whig		John Knight
1728					William East
1734					Richard Plumer
1741		Robert Nugent Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent Robert Craggs-Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent PC was an Irish politician and poet.-Background:The son of Michael Nugent and Mary, daughter of Robert Barnewall, 9th Baron Trimlestown, he was born at Carlanstown, County Westmeath...			James Douglas James Douglas (died 1751) James Douglas was a British politician.He succeeded Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington as the Member of Parliament for St. Mawes from 1741 to 1747 and for Malmesbury from 1747 until his death in 1751.-References:...
1747					The Lord Sundon William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon was a British politician who served in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Woodstock from 1716-1722, St Albans from 1722-1727, Westminster from 1727-1741, Plympton Erle from 1742-1747 and St Mawes from 1747-1752.Clayton was raised to the Peerage of...
1753					Sir Thomas Clavering Sir Thomas Clavering, 7th Baronet Sir Thomas Clavering, 7th Baronet succeeded to the Baronetcy of Axwell and to the family estates on the death of his father in 1748....
April 1754					Henry Seymour Conway Henry Seymour Conway Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway was a British general and statesman. A brother of the 1st Marquess of Hertford, and cousin of Horace Walpole, he began his military career in the War of the Austrian Succession and eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal .-Family and education:Conway was...	Whig
December 1754		James Newsham
1761		Edmund Nugent			Richard Hussey
1768					George Boscawen
1770		Michael Byrne
1772		James Edward Colleton
1774		Viscount Clare Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent Robert Craggs-Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent PC was an Irish politician and poet.-Background:The son of Michael Nugent and Mary, daughter of Robert Barnewall, 9th Baron Trimlestown, he was born at Carlanstown, County Westmeath...			Hugh Boscawen Hugh Boscawen Hugh Boscawen was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1646 and 1701.Boscawen was the son of Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan, Cornwall and was baptised on 21 August 1625....
1784		(Sir) William Young Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet William Young was a British colonial governor, politician and sugar plantation owner. He was the governor of Grenada in 1776 and British Guiana from 8 March 1777–3 April 1777 and Tobago from 1807 – January 1815....	Tory
1790					Colonel John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...
1792					Thomas Calvert
1795					William Drummond
May 1796					George Nugent
October 1796					Jeremiah Crutchley
1802					William Windham William Windham William Windham PC, PC was a British Whig statesman.-Early life:Windham was a member of an ancient Norfolk family and a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham. He was the son of William Windham, Sr. of Felbrigg Hall and his second wife, Sarah Lukin...	Tory
1806		Sir John Newport	Whig		Scrope Bernard Sir Scrope Bernard-Morland, 4th Baronet Sir Scrope Bernard-Morland, 4th Baronet was a British politician and baronet.-Background:Born Scrope Bernard in Pestel Amberg in New Jersey, he was the sixth and youngest son of Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet and Amelia Offley, daughter of Stephen Offley. In 1818, he succeeded his older brother...	Tory
January 1807		William Shipley
July 1807		Viscount Ebrington	Whig
1808					Earl Gower George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland KG , styled Viscount Trentham until 1803, Earl Gower between 1803 and 1833 and Marquess of Stafford in 1833, was a British peer....
1809		Scrope Bernard-Morland Sir Scrope Bernard-Morland, 4th Baronet Sir Scrope Bernard-Morland, 4th Baronet was a British politician and baronet.-Background:Born Scrope Bernard in Pestel Amberg in New Jersey, he was the sixth and youngest son of Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet and Amelia Offley, daughter of Stephen Offley. In 1818, he succeeded his older brother...	Tory
1812					William Shipley
1813					Francis Horner Francis Horner Francis Horner was a Scottish Whig MP for St. Ives in 1806, Wendover in 1807, and St. Mawes in 1812 ....	Whig
1817					Joseph Phillimore Joseph Phillimore Joseph Phillimore was an English civil lawyer and politician, Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford from 1809.-Life:The eldest son of Joseph Phillimore, vicar of Orton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, by Mary, daughter of John Machin of Kensington, was born on 14 September 1775...	Tory
1826					Sir Codrington Carrington	Tory
1830		George Grenville Wandisford Pigott	Tory
1831					Sir Edward Burtenshaw Sugden Edward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards PC was a British lawyer, judge and Conservative politician.-Background:St Leonards was the son of a high-class hairdresser and wig-maker in Westminster, London....	Tory
1832 United Kingdom general election, 1832 -Seats summary:-Parties and leaders at the general election:The Earl Grey had been Prime Minister since 22 November 1830. His was the first predominantly Whig administration since the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806-1807....	Constituency abolished

Notes