St Germans (UK Parliament constituency) explained

St Germans
Type:Borough
Parliament:uk
Year:1562
Abolished:1832
Elects Howmany:Two
Next:East Cornwall

St Germans was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1562 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

History

The borough consisted of part of St Germans parish in South-East Cornwall, a coastal town too small to have a mayor and corporation, where the chief economic activity was fishing. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start.

The right to vote rested in theory with all (adult male) householders, but in practice only a handful (who called themselves freemen) exercised the right; there were only seven voters in 1831. The Eliot family had exercised complete control over the choice of MPs for many years, as was also true at nearby Liskeard.[1]

In 1831, the borough had a population of 672, and 99 houses. The boundaries excluded part of the town, which consisted of 124 houses in total, but this was still far too small to justify its retaining its representation, and St Germans was disfranchised by the Reform Act in 1832. The decision, however, was controversial: the whole parish (of which the town made up only a fraction) had a population in the 1821 census of 2,404, and the initial proposal was that St Germans should lose only one of its two MPs. But the borough covered only 40acres, and the town 50, in a parish of more than 9,000 acres (36 km2). The Whig government decided that the availability in a surrounding parish of sufficient population should not save a borough from disfranchisement, unless a substantial part of that population was already within the borough boundaries. The bill's schedules were amended so as to extinguish both of the St Germans MPs, saving instead the second MP at Penryn (where the boundaries had been extended to take in the neighbouring town of Falmouth). The Tory opposition attacked the decision as politically motivated (St Germans was a Tory borough), and the vote in the Commons was one of the narrowest in the entire reform bill debates.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1563–1629

ParliamentFirst memberSecond member
Parliament of 1563–1567William MohunWilliam Hyde
Parliament of 1571Charles GlemhamThomas Cosgrave
Parliament of 1572–1581Thomas AysheRichard Eliot
Parliament of 1584–1585George CarewHenry Denny
Parliament of 1586–1587Thomas BodleyEdward Barker
Parliament of 1588–1589William BarringtonWilliam Langham
Parliament of 1593Sampson LennardJohn Glanville
Parliament of 1597–1598Robert HatchmanJohn Chamberlain
Parliament of 1601(Sir) George CarewJohn Osborne
Parliament of 1604–1611John Trott
Addled Parliament (1614)Sir John Eliot
Parliament of 1621–1622Richard TisdaleSir Richard Buller
Happy Parliament (1624–1625)(Sir) John CokeSir John Stradling
Sir Henry Marten
Parliament of 1625–1626 Sir John Eliot
Parliament of 1628–1629Thomas CottonBenjamin Valentine
No Parliament summoned 1629–1640

MPs 1640–1832

YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party
April 1640William ScawenJohn Eliot
November 1640Benjamin ValentineJohn Moyle[2]
December 1648Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant
1652Valentine died 1652 – seat vacant
1653St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
John St Aubyn
May 1659Not represented in the restored Rump
1660John Eliot<-- party -->Richard Knightley
1661Edward Eliot
1679Daniel Eliot<-- party -->Richard Eliot
1685Sir Thomas Higgons
1689Sir Walter Moyle
1690Henry Fleming
1698John Tanner
1700Henry Fleming<-- party -->
January 1701John Speccot
April 1701Daniel Eliot
December 1701Richard EdgcumbeWhig
1702John Anstis
May 1705Samuel Rolle
December 1705Edward Eliot<-- party -->
1708Francis Scobell
1710John Knight<-- party --> Whig
January 1715Waller Bacon[3]
May 1715Lord StanhopeWhig
1722Lord BinningPhilip Cavendish
1727Sir Gilbert HeathcoteWhigSidney Godolphin
January 1733Richard Eliot<-- party -->
March 1733Dudley Ryder
1734The Lord BaltimoreCharles Montagu
1741John Hynde CottonJames Newsham
1747Richard EliotThomas Potter<-- party -->
1748Edward Eliot[4] Whig
1754Anthony Champion
1761Philip Stanhope
1765William Hussey
March 1768Samuel Salt[5]
December 1768George JenningsBenjamin Langlois<-- party -->
1774Edward EliotWhig
1775John Pownall
1776John Peachey
1780Edward James EliotDudley LongWhig
1784John HamiltonToryAbel Smith
1788Samuel Smith<-- party -->
February 1790Sir Charles Hamilton
June 1790The Marquess of LorneWhigHon. Edward James Eliot[6]
1791Hon. William EliotTory
1796Lord GreyWhig
1802Lord BinningToryJames Langham
1806Sir Joseph YorkeToryMatthew MontaguTory
1810Charles Philip YorkeTory
1812William Henry PringleToryHenry GoulburnTory
1818Hon. Seymour Thomas BathurstToryCharles ArbuthnotTory
1826Charles RossTory
1827James LochWhig
July 1830Sir Henry Hardinge[7] Tory
December 1830Winthrop Mackworth PraedTory
1832Constituency abolished

References

Notes and References

  1. Page 147, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
  2. A writ was issued for a by-election in November 1646, apparently in the mistaken belief that Moyle had died. William Scawen was elected, but does not appear to have attempted to take his seat
  3. Bacon was also elected for Norwich, which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Germans
  4. Eliot was re-elected in 1768 but had also been elected for Liskeard, which he chose to represent, and did not for St Germans in that Parliament
  5. Salt was also elected for Liskeard, which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Germans
  6. Eliot was also elected for Liskeard, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for St Germans in this Parliament
  7. Hardinge was also elected for Newport (Cornwall), which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Germans