Truro, a stannary town, was one of the more prosperous parliamentary boroughs in Cornwall. In 1589, when a charter of incorporation was received, government was vested in the mayor and 24 capital burgesses, four of whom were to be aldermen. Parliamentary election appears always to have been made by the mayor and burgesses.3

Until the last Parliament of the reign, the Killigrews of Arwennack, a few miles from the borough, exercised the dominant influence on the Truro elections. Henry Killigrew was the only MP in this period to sit twice for the borough (1571, 1572). John Michell (1563), who lived in Truro and later became mayor, was related to the Killigrews by marriage. Ten outsiders were returned through direct or indirect Killigrew influence. John Fitzwilliam (1559), a Northamptonshire landowner, was related to the Killigrews, and Sir Maurice Berkeley II (1597) was William Killigrew’s son-in-law from Somerset. Burghley’s close association with the Killigrews explains the return of his nominees at Truro: Vincent Skinner (1571) and Michael Hickes (1584) were both Burghley’s servants; Rowland Lytton (1586) was one of Burghley’s Hertfordshire circle; and Nicholas Smyth (1593) owed his Exchequer post to Burghley and Hickes. Edward Darcy (1584), John Stanhope (1586) and John Parker II (1593) all had court connexions with Burghley and the Killigrews. Reade Stafford (1597) owed his return to Sir Robert Cecil acting through the Killigrews. By 1601, however, relations between the Killigrews and the borough were strained. The Killigrews were already advocating their design, ultimately successful, of developing Falmouth. In view of this threat to its interests, Truro was unlikely to favour a Killigrew candidate for the 1601 Parliament. In the event it returned one of its own merchants, William Daniel, together with Thomas Harris I, the eminent London lawyer whom it may have commissioned to protect its interests in the House.

Local men returned on their own merits during this period were Nicholas Randall (1559), John Carminowe (1563), his eldest son Oliver (1572) and Hannibal Vivian (1572). John Woolton (1589) probably owed his return to his father, bishop of Exeter, whose liberty of Truro adjoined the borough.4