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Penryn
Borough
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Background Information
Right of Election:
in inhabitants paying scot and lot
Number of voters:
about 120
Elections
Date | Candidate | Votes |
---|---|---|
26 Jan. 1715 | HUGH BOSCAWEN | |
SAMUEL TREFUSIS | ||
29 Nov. 1717 | BOSCAWEN re-elected after appointment to office | |
24 June 1720 | WILLIAM GODOLPHIN, Visct. Rialton, vice Boscawen, called to the Upper House | |
12 Apr. 1722 | SIDNEY MEADOWS | |
EDWARD VERNON | ||
26 Aug. 1727 | SIR CECIL BISHOPP | |
EDWARD VERNON | ||
3 May 1734 | SIR RICHARD MILL | 73 |
JOHN CLAVERING | 69 | |
Robert Trefusis | 56 | |
Edward Vernon | 28 | |
12 May 1741 | JOHN EVELYN | 81 |
EDWARD VERNON | 72 | |
John Clavering | 71 | |
Sir John Campbell | 64 | |
22 Feb. 1743 | GEORGE BOSCAWEN vice Vernon, chose to sit for Ipswich | |
1 July 1747 | GEORGE BOSCAWEN | |
HENRY CONWAY |
Main Article
The chief interests at Penryn in 1715 were those of the Boscawen, Trefusis and Godolphin families. Till 1734 the borough was represented by members or nominees of these families without opposition.
At the general election of 1734, Richard Edgcumbe, who had replaced Hugh Boscawen, 1st Lord Falmouth, then in opposition, as Walpole’s chief election manager in Cornwall, put up two government candidates, who defeated two opposition Whigs standing on the Boscawen interest. In 1740 Thomas Pitt, the Prince of Wales’s election manager, wrote:
The natural interest of the town is on the country [opposition] side. Mr. Herle, who lives in the town, and Mr. Trefusis who lives near it, have declared themselves against any man of Mr. Edgcumbe’s recommendation — Mr. Herle, chaplain to Lord Falmouth, is a magistrate in the town, and a stirring popular man. The gentlemen in the country interest declared for Admiral Vernon and solicited votes for him but they were opposed by Mr. Enys, a gentleman who lives in the town, and who acts under Mr. Edgcumbe who solicited for both members — but by the last account Admiral Vernon’s election is secured and Mr. Edgcumbe acquiesces in it — and there is great room to hope for another in the country interest. ‘Tis said they are certain of carrying it for both, provided their design be kept secret.1
At the ensuing election the two Boscawen candidates, Vernon and Evelyn, defeated the Edgcumbe candidates, Clavering and Campbell, who petitioned, but withdrew after the fall of Walpole. At a by-election in 1743, George Boscawen, brother to Hugh Boscawen, 2nd Lord Falmouth, was returned, the Boscawens having reverted to the government side. Thenceforth Falmouth and Edgcumbe became the joint patrons of the borough.
Author: Eveline Cruickshanks
Notes
- 1. Chatham mss.