Mitchell, alias Michael, alias Medishole, was owned by the Arundell family of Lanherne, the lords of the manor with which the borough was co-extensive. The borough government was rudimentary. The parliamentary returns for 1584, 1589 and 1597 state that election was made by the bailiff and burgesses, but the return for 1563 mentions the constable, burgesses and free inhabitants. In 1572 Sir John Arundell of Lanherne is named as one of the burgesses. In that year, and again in 1601, the portreeve is specified but not a constable or bailiff. From 1589 the borough adopted the practice, found elsewhere in Cornwall, of making a separate return for each Member.6

The Arundells of Lanherne were probably responsible for the return of the two 1559 Members, but, being Catholics, the family were thenceforward somewhat in eclipse, Sir John Arundell spending some time under house arrest in London. This left the borough open to court patronage, and all four MPs in 1563 and 1571 reflect this. Neither 1572 MP has been certainly identified, but court influence is likely to be the explanation for their return, and also for that of Edward Lane, who replaced Lyster for the third session of that Parliament. Edward Barker (1584) probably owed his return to Walsingham. With the exception of William Chomeley (1601), who may have been Robert Cecil’s nominee, all the remaining MPs, including (Sir) Walter Ralegh, no less, were brought in by the Arundells of Trerice or their kinsmen by marriage, the Carews of Antony. The Arundells of Trerice were distant, and protestant, relatives of the Lanherne branch of the family, with whom they nevertheless remained on good terms. During the minority of John Arundell (b.1576) the patronage was exercised by Richard Carew, bailiff of the borough, who in 1597 took one of the seats with Arundell, then just short of 21, taking the other.7