| Launceston | |
| Type: | Borough |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1295 |
| Abolished: | 1885 |
| Elects Howmany: | Two (1295–1832); one (1832–1885) |
| Next: | Launceston |
| Cornwall, North-Eastern or Launceston | |
| Type: | County |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1885 |
| Abolished: | 1918 |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Previous: | East Cornwall, Launceston |
| Next: | North Cornwall |
Launceston, also known at some periods as Dunheved, was a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, and one member from 1832 until 1918. It was a parliamentary borough until 1885, and a county constituency thereafter.
1832–1885: The old Borough of Launceston and the Parish of St Stephen, and all such parts of the several Parishes of Lawhitton, St Thomas the Apostle, and South Petherwin as are without the old Borough of Launceston.[1]
1885–1918: The Sessional Division of East Middle, East North, Lesnewth, and Stratton, and part of the Sessional Division of Trigg.
Launceston was one of 21 parliamentary boroughs in Cornwall between the 16th and 19th centuries; unlike many of these, which had been little more than villages even when established and were rotten boroughs from the start, Launceston had been a town of reasonable size and importance though much in decline by the 19th century. The borough consisted of only part of the present town, as Newport was a separate borough in itself from 1554, though Newport and Launceston were joined as Dunheved, collectively returning members, earlier in that century.
The right to vote was vested theoretically in the Mayor, aldermen and those freemen of the borough who were resident at the time they became freemen; but in practice the vote was exercised only by members of the corporation, who were chosen mainly with a view to maintaining the influence of the "patron". Up to 1775, this was generally the head of the Morice family,[2] who also controlled Newport, but in that year Humphry Morice sold his interest in both boroughs to the Duke of Newcastle, whose family retained hold on both until the Reform Act. There were about 17 voters in Launceston in 1831, by which time the borough was as rotten as any of the others in Cornwall.
In 1831 the borough had a population of 2,669 and 429 houses. Under the Great Reform Act of 1832 the boundaries were extended to encompass the whole town (including Newport, which was abolished as a separate borough), bringing the population up to 5,394. This was sufficient for Launceston to retain one of its two seats.
The borough was eventually abolished in 1885, but the name of the town was transferred to the new county constituency in which it was placed, strictly the North-Eastern or Launceston Division of Cornwall, which also elected a single member. This covered a much larger, rural, area including Callington, Calstock and Bude-Stratton. This constituency in its turn was abolished in 1918, being absorbed mostly into the new Cornwall North constituency.
A list of MPs for Launceston appears in "The Histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the County of Cornwall." by Richard Peter and Otho Bathurst Peter. 1885. p.387, and many of the names differ from those in the list below.[3]
| Parliament | First member | Second member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1358 | John Hamely[4] | ||
| 1386 | John Cokeworthy I | Roger Leye[5] | |
| 1388 (Feb) | John Cokeworthy I | William Bodrugan | |
| 1388 (Sep) | Thomas Trereise | Thomas Treuref | |
| 1390 (Jan) | John Cokeworthy I | John Syreston | |
| 1390 (Nov) | |||
| 1391 | John Cokeworthy I | Richard Lovyn | |
| 1393 | John Cokeworthy I | Richard Lovyn | |
| 1394 | |||
| 1395 | John Cokeworthy I | Richard Lovyn | |
| 1397 (Jan) | John Cokeworthy I | Richard Tolle | |
| 1397 (Sep) | Roger Menwenick | William Holt | |
| 1399 | John Cokeworthy I | John Goly | |
| 1401 | |||
| 1402 | Thomas Colyn | Richard Raddow | |
| 1404 (Jan) | |||
| 1404 (Oct) | |||
| 1406 | Walter Tregarya | John Colet | |
| 1407 | Richard Brackish | ?John Pengersick | |
| 1410 | Edward Burnebury | John Cory | |
| 1411 | Edward Burnebury | Richard Trelawny | |
| 1413 (Feb) | |||
| 1413 (May) | Edward Burnebury | John Mayhew | |
| 1414 (Apr) | |||
| 1414 (Nov) | Edward Burnebury | John Cory | |
| 1415 | |||
| 1416 (Mar) | Oliver Wyse | Edward Burnebury | |
| 1416 (Oct) | |||
| 1417 | Edward Burnebury | John Cory | |
| 1419 | Edward Burnebury | Edward Burnebury | |
| 1420 | Simon Yurle | Edward Burnebury | |
| 1421 (May) | Simon Yurle | John Cory | |
| 1421 (Dec) | John Treffriowe | Edward Burnebury | |
| 1431 | Nicholas Aysshton | ||
| 1432 | Nicholas Aysshton | ||
| 1510–1523 | No names known[6] | ||
| 1529 | Sir Edward Ryngley | John Rastell | |
| 1536 | ? | ||
| 1539 | ? | ||
| 1542 | ? | ||
| 1545 | William Cordell | Robert Taverner | |
| 1547 | William Cordell | ||
| First Parliament of 1553 | William Ley alias Kempthorne | John Ley alias Kempthorne I | |
| Second Parliament of 1553 | Robert Monson | ||
| Parliament of 1554 | Arthur Welsh | ||
| Parliament of 1554–1555 | William Bendlow | ||
| Parliament of 1555 | Robert Grenville | John Ley alias Kempthorne II | |
| Parliament of 1558 | Thomas Roper[7] | Robert Monson | John Heydon |
| Parliament of 1559 | George Basset | Ayshton Aylworth | William Gibbes[8] |
| Parliament of 1563–1567 | Richard Grenville | Henry Chiverton | |
| Parliament of 1571 | George Grenville | Sampson Lennard | |
| Parliament of 1572–1581 | George Blyth | George Grenville | |
| Parliament of 1584–1585 | Roland Watson | John Glanville | |
| Parliament of 1586–1587 | John Spurling | ||
| Parliament of 1588–1589 | |||
| Parliament of 1593 | George Grenville | ||
| Parliament of 1597–1598 | Herbert Croft | Sir William Bowyer[9] | |
| Parliament of 1601 | John Parker | Gregory Downhall | |
| Parliament of 1604–1611 | Sir Thomas Lake | Ambrose Rous | |
| Addled Parliament (1614) | Sir Charles Wilmot | William Croft | |
| Parliament of 1621–1622 | John Harris | Thomas Bond | |
| Happy Parliament (1624–1625) | Sir Francis Crane | Miles Fleetwood | |
| Sir Bevil Grenville | Richard Scott | ||
| Parliament of 1625–1626 | |||
| Parliament of 1628–1629 | |||
| No Parliament summoned 1629–1640 | |||
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1640 | Sir Bevil Grenville | Royalist | Ambrose Manaton | ||||
| November 1640 | William Coryton[10] | ||||||
| 1641 | John Harris | Parliamentarian | |||||
| January 1644 | Manaton disabled from sitting – seat vacant | ||||||
| 1645 | |||||||
| December 1648 | Harris and Gewen excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant | ||||||
| 1653 | Launceston was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament | ||||||
| Launceston had only one seat in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | |||||||
| Thomas Gewen | < | -- party --> | |||||
| Robert Bennet | |||||||
| May 1659 | Not represented in the restored Rump | ||||||
| April 1660 | Edward Eliot | Thomas Gewen | < | -- party --> | |||
| June 1660 | John Cloberry | ||||||
| 1661 | Richard Edgcumbe | Sir Charles Harbord | < | -- party --> | |||
| February 1679 | Bernard Granville | ||||||
| September 1679 | Sir John Coryton | Sir Hugh Piper | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1680 | Lord Lansdowne | ||||||
| 1681 | William Harbord | ||||||
| 1685 | John Granville | ||||||
| 1689 | William Harbord | < | -- party --> | Edward Russell | Whig | ||
| 1690 | Bernard Granville | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1692 | Lord Hyde | Tory | |||||
| 1695 | William Cary | ||||||
| 1710 | Francis Scobell | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1711 | George Clarke | ||||||
| 1713 | Edward Herle | John Anstis | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1721 | Alexander Pendarves | Tory | |||||
| 1722 | John Freind[11] | ||||||
| 1724 | John Willes | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1725 | John Freind | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1726 | Henry Vane | Whig | |||||
| 1727 | Hon. John King | < | -- party --> | Arthur Tremayne | |||
| 1734 | Sir William Morice | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1735 | Sir William Irby | ||||||
| 1747 | Sir John St Aubyn | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1750 | Humphry Morice | Whig | |||||
| 1754 | Sir George Lee | ||||||
| 1758 | Sir John St Aubyn | ||||||
| 1759 | Peter Burrell | ||||||
| 1768 | William Amherst | ||||||
| 1774 | John Buller | ||||||
| September 1780 | Viscount Cranborne | Thomas Bowlby | < | -- party --> | |||
| November 1780 | Hon. Charles Perceval[12] | Tory | |||||
| 1783 | Sir John Jervis | Whig | |||||
| 1784 | George Rose | Tory | |||||
| 1788 | Sir John Swinburne, Bt | ||||||
| 1790 | Hon. John Rodney | Tory | Sir Henry Clinton | Tory | |||
| 1795 | William Garthshore | Tory | |||||
| 1796 | Hon. John Rawdon | Tory | James Brogden | Tory | |||
| 1802 | Richard Bennet | Whig | |||||
| 1806 | Earl Percy | Tory | |||||
| 1807 | Captain Richard Bennet | Whig | |||||
| May 1812 | Jonathan Raine | ||||||
| October 1812 | Pownoll Pellew | Tory | |||||
| 1830 | Sir James Gordon | Tory | |||||
| 1831 | Sir John Malcolm | Tory | |||||
| 1832 | Representation reduced to one member | ||||||
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | Sir Henry Hardinge | Conservative[13] | ||
| 1844 by-election | William Bowles | Conservative | ||
| 1852 | Hon. Josceline Percy | Conservative | ||
| 1859 | Thomas Chandler Haliburton | Conservative | ||
| 1865 | Alexander Henry Campbell | Conservative | ||
| 1868 by-election | Henry Lopes | Conservative | ||
| February 1874 | James Henry Deakin (senior)[14] | Conservative | ||
| July 1874 by-election | James Henry Deakin (junior) | Conservative | ||
| 1877 by-election | Sir Hardinge Giffard | Conservative | ||
| July 1885 by-election | Richard Webster | Conservative | ||
| 1885 | Borough abolished; name transferred to county constituency | |||
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 | Sir Thomas Dyke-Acland | Liberal | ||
| 1892 | Thomas Owen | Liberal | ||
| 1898 by-election | Sir John Fletcher Moulton | Liberal | ||
| 1906 | Sir George Croydon Marks | Liberal | ||
| 1918 | constituency abolished | |||
Gordon resigned, causing a by-election.
Hardinge was appointed Secretary at War, requiring a by-election.
Hardinge resigned after being appointed Governor-General of India, causing a by-election.
Campbell resigned, causing a by-election.
The election was declared void on petition, due to corrupt practices including Deakin allowing his tenants to "kill rabbits the eve of the election", causing a by-election.[15]
Deakin's resignation caused a by-election.
Giffard resigned upon his appointment as Lord Chancellor and elevation to the peerage, becoming Lord Halsbury, causing a by-election.
General Election 1914/15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;