Grampound (UK Parliament constituency)

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Grampound Borough constituency
Created:	1553
Abolished:	1821
Type:	House of Commons

Grampound in Cornwall, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1821. It was represented by two Members of Parliament.

Grampound's market was on a Saturday and the town had a glove factory. Grampound was created a Borough by a charter of King Edward III with a Mayor, eight Aldermen, a Recorder, and a Town Clerk. The franchise for the borough was in the hands of Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and any Freemen created by the council. In 1816, T.H.B. Oldfield wrote that there were 42 voters in all. Given that the borough had 80 houses, this meant that the franchise was extended well into the working class.

While several patrons (including the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe, Lord Eliot, Sir Christopher Hawkins and Basil Cochrane) attempted to exert their influence over the choice of members to serve Grampound, the electors were more interested in the monetary value of their vote. Oldfield wrote "The freemen of this borough have been known to boast of receiving three hundred guineas a man for their votes at one election." So notorious and unmanageable did the borough become that Grampound became a byword for electoral corruption, and Edward Porritt noted its use was continuing in 1903.

Finally, after the return of two members in the 1818 general election was overturned by a petition alleging gross bribery, Lord John Russell moved to disfranchise Grampound and to transfer the two members to a new Parliamentary Borough of Leeds. The usual treatment for a Borough which had perpetual bribery (as practiced in New Shoreham in 1770, Cricklade in 1782, Aylesbury in 1804 and East Retford in 1828) was to expand its boundaries and franchise into an area free of corruption but that was not possible in Grampound where the neighbouring towns were also Parliamentary boroughs and increasing the electorate would simply increase the pool of potential bribed voters.

After a delay caused by the accession of King George IV and the scandal of Queen Caroline's return, Russell introduced a Bill in January 1821. The suggestion of Leeds as a new borough met with resistance because of the large number of working class voters who would be enfranchised, and when an amendment to raise the qualification was passed, Russell withdrew his Bill; however, the mover of the amendment introduced his own. The House of Lords amended the Bill to give the two members instead to the county of Yorkshire, an amendment accepted and which eventually went into law. Grampound was disfranchised by 1 & 2 Geo. IV, c. 47.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 Members of Parliament 3 Elections 4 References

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency was a Parliamentary borough in Cornwall, covering Grampound, a market town 8 miles from Truro on the River Fal.

[edit] Members of Parliament

Year	First member	Second member
1553	Thomas Niccolls	Egidius Wilson
1553	Sir Thomas Smith	William Smithwick
1554	Richard Chapell	Thomas Cornwallis
1554	Robert Vaughan	George Tedlowe
1555	John Harryk	Richard Chapell
1558	Thomas Herle	Robert Rythre
1559	No returns found
1563	Sir John Pollard	Christopher Perne
1572	Edmund Sheffield	John Hussey
1584	William Stoughton	Charles Trevanyon
1586	Thomas Cromwell	John Harbert
1588		Richard Sayer
1593	Richard Edgcumbe	Edward Jones
1597	Sir John Legh	Robert Newdigate
1601	Sir John Gray	John Astell
1604	William Noye	Francis Barnham
1614	No returns found
1621	John Hampden	Sir Robert Carey
1624	John Mohun	Sir Richard Edgcombe
1625		Sir Samuel Rolle
1626	Edward Thomas	Thomas St. Aubyn
1628	Lord Carey	Sir Robert Pye
1640	William Coryton	John Trevanion
1640		James Campbell
1640	Sir John Trevor

• Not represented in the First and Second Protectorate Parliaments; returned two members for the Third Protectorate Parliament.

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1659	Thomas Herle		Robert Scawen
		April 1660			Hugh Boscawen
		October 1660	John Tanner
		1661			Charles Trevanion
		February 1679	Sir Joseph Tredenham	Tory
		August 1679	John Tanner		Nicholas Herle
		1685	Sir Joseph Tredenham	Tory	Robert Foley
		1689	Edward Herle		John Tanner
		1690	Walter Vincent
		1692	John Buller
		1695	Hugh Fortescue
		1698	Sir William Scawen
		1699			Francis Scobell
		1702	James Craggs	Whig
		1708			Thomas Scawen
		1710			Thomas Coke
		1713	Andrew Quick
		1715	Hon. John West		Charles Cooke
		1721			Richard West
		1722	Marquess of Hartington	Whig	Humphry Morrice
		1727	Philip Hawkins
		1732			Isaac Leheup
		1734			Thomas Hales
		1739	Thomas Trefusis
		1741	Daniel Boone		William Banks
		1747	Lord George Bentinck		Thomas Hawkins
		1754	Merrick Burrell		Simon Fanshawe
		1768	Grey Cooper		Charles Wolfran Cornwall
		1774	Sir Joseph Yorke		Richard Neville
		1780	Sir John Ramsden, Bt		Thomas Lucas
		1784	John Sommers Cocks		Francis Baring
		1790	Thomas Wallace		Jeremiah Crutchley
		1796	Bryan Edwards		Robert Sewell
		1800	Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bt
		1802			Benjamin Hobhouse
		1806			Henry Fawcett
		1807	Andrew James Cochrane-Johnstone		George Frederick Augustus Cochrane
		1808	William Holmes
		1812			Andrew James Cochrane-Johnstone
		1812	John Teed
		1814			Ebenezer Collett
		1818	John Innes		Alexander Robertson

• Constituency disenfranchished for corruption (1821)

[edit] Elections

As with most boroughs in the unreformed House of Commons, Grampound was uncontested at most elections. The only contested elections after 1660 were:

• 1741: The sitting members, Thomas Hales and Thomas Trefusis, (who were supporters of Robert Walpole) were challenged by Daniel Boone and William Banks. Hales and Trefusis were supported by Richard Edgcumbe who was managing the Cornish Boroughs for the Government and controlled the Grampound corporation, but Boone and Banks arranged for an alternate Mayor to be elected and indemnified the Sheriff of the County against any legal expenses if he delivered the writs for the election to their Mayor and was sued. They secured their election by 27 votes to 23, while an alternative poll by the original Mayor returned Hales and Trefusis with 35 votes to 17 for their opponents. However, Hales and Trefusis declined to press their challenge through an election petition.

General Election 1741: Grampound (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	Daniel Boone	27	27%	N/A
	N/A	William Banks	27	27%	N/A
	N/A	Thomas Hales	23	23%	N/A
	N/A	Thomas Trefusis	23	23%	N/A

• 1754: Sir John St Aubyn, Bt and Francis Beauchamp were proposed as candidates apparently without their knowledge by local malcontent voters who wanted to raise the level of their bribery. They secured 13 votes to 31 for Merrick Burrell and Simon Fanshawe, who were government candidates.

General Election 1754: Grampound (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	Merrick Burrell	31	35%	N/A
	N/A	Simon Fanshawe	31	35%	N/A
	N/A	Sir John St Aubyn, Bt	13	15%	N/A
	N/A	Francis Beauchamp	13	15%	N/A

General Election 1796: Grampound (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	Bryan Edwards	12	33%	N/A
	N/A	Robert Sewell	12	33%	N/A
	N/A	Lord Grey of Groby	6	17%	N/A
	N/A	Jeremiah Crutchley	6	17%	N/A

General Election 1807: Grampound (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	Andrew James Cochrane-Johnstone	27	33%	N/A
	N/A	George Frederick Augustus Cochrane	27	33%	N/A
	N/A	Robert Williams	14	17%	N/A
	N/A	Henry Baring	13	16%	N/A

• Election declared void, March 7, 1808

• 1808: Robert Williams (senior) and John Teed 14; Hon. George Augustus Frederick Cochrane and William Holmes 13 by first returning officer. Cochrane and Holmes 27; Williams and Teed 14 by second returning officer. Williams and Teed seated on petition, May 10, 1808.

By-Election 1808: Grampound
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	Robert Williams	14	26%	N/A
	N/A	John Teed	14	26%	N/A
	N/A	George Frederick Augustus Cochrane	13	24%	N/A
	N/A	William Holmes	13	24%	N/A

General Election 1812: Grampound (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	John Teed	55	47%	N/A
	N/A	Andrew James Cochrane-Johnstone	34	29%	N/A
	N/A	Charles Trelawny Brereton	28	24%	N/A
	N/A	William Holmes	0	16%	N/A
	N/A	William Congreve	0	16%	N/A

• Andrew James Cochrane-Johnstone expelled for committing stock fraud

By-Election 1814: Grampound
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	Ebenezer Collett	45	90%	N/A
	N/A	George Conway Montagu	5	10%	N/A

General Election 1818: Grampound (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	N/A	John Innes	36	34%	N/A
	N/A	Alexander Robinson	36	34%	N/A
	N/A	John Teed	11	10%	N/A
	N/A	Ebenezer Collett	11	10%	N/A
	N/A	Benjamin Shaw	11	10%	N/A
	N/A	William Allen	1	1%	N/A

[edit] References

• "Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland" by Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield (Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, London, 1816)
• "Return of Members of Parliament" (1878)
• "The Unreformed House of Commons by Edward Porritt (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
• "Members of the Long Parliament" by D. Brunton and D.H. Pennington (George Allen and Unwin, 1954)
• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies