Truro

Truro was a medieval town situated at the junction of two main roads and the Truro River, which flowed into Falmouth harbour. Under its charter of 1589 the borough acquired a strong corporate structure, with a mayor and 24 burgesses, who enjoyed the right to choose the recorder and steward and also to elect the MPs. C66/1334. Richard Carew†, writing at the beginning of the seventeenth century, described Truro as having ‘the start in wealth of any other Cornish town, and to come behind none in buildings, Launceston only excepted’. Carew, Survey, 142r. This wealth mainly came from the tin trade, with Truro acting as one of the four stannary towns, and from cloth-working and fishing, while the corporation enjoyed a steady income from tolls and dues connected with its markets and fairs. J. Palmer, Truro in the Seventeenth Century (privately published, 1989), 31, 38, 40; V. Acton, History of Truro (3 vols. 1997-2003), ii. 58, 65. The town had a population of around 900 in the period, and even after the civil wars it could boast a large number of sizeable houses, with 35 having five or more hearths. Palmer, Truro, 3. Despite this prosperity and self-assurance, during the later 1620s Truro’s elections had come under the control of two powerful gentry interests, the Boscawens and the Robartes. Hugh Boscawen*, as recorder of the borough, was probably behind the return of his kinsman, Henry Rolle†, in 1625, 1626 and 1628, and Sir Richard Robartes, who had substantial property interests there, was responsible for the election of his son-in-law William Rous†, and Rous’s uncle, Francis*. HP Commons 1604-1629. The situation had changed little by the time of the Short Parliament elections on 12 March 1640, when John Rolle was returned with Francis Rous. C219/42/38. Both were re-elected for the Long Parliament of November 1640.

In the later 1630s Truro had been a regular meeting place for the Cornish gentry, to discuss such matters as the Ship Money rates, and to muster the trained bands, and during the civil war the town soon became an administrative centre for the royalists. CSP Dom. 1635, p. 504; 1638-9, p. 429; 1639, pp. 62, 339; 1640, p. 438. In 1642 Sir Richard Vyvyan* established a royal mint in the town, which was moved to Exeter in the autumn of 1643. Coate, Cornw. 109, 116. Truro also continued to be an important tin entrepôt, whence it could be traded with France to raise money for the king’s cause. CSP Dom. 1644-5, pp. 387, 502 The loyalties of the inhabitants appear to have been divided. At least one burgess, John Catcher, was later fined as a royalist, but at the beginning of the war the mayor resisted Vyvan’s attempt to raise forces in the town, and even when the majority reluctantly complied, ‘three or four still denied, and said … their arms should never be carried against the Parliament, they would rather die’. Coate, Cornw. 194; New News from Cornwall (1642), 1 (E.124.20). In September 1645 Sir Richard Grenvile still suspected the allegiances of the town – classing it as one of ‘the three most rotten towns in the west’. CCSP i. 277; Coate, Cornw. 369. The prince of Wales made Truro his base in the autumn of 1645, remaining there until the end of December, returning in February 1646 for a brief visit before retreating to nearby Pendennis and taking ship for the continent. Clarendon, Hist. iv. 104, 107, 138; HMC Portland, i. 322. A month before, the demoralised forces of Lord Hopton (Sir Ralph Hopton)* mustered at Truro following their retreat from the Devon border, and they were still holed up in the town in March, when they surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax* under the Truro Articles. Clarendon, Hist. iv. 133; Coate, Cornw. 209; Clarke Pprs. i. 422-3; Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 227-9. Truro then became a base for the siege of Pendennis, with the parliamentarians borrowing money from the mayor, Thomas Trewoolas, and a prominent burgess, Sir Edward Nosworthy†. Bodl. Walker c.10, f. 90v. Nosworthy went on to operate the tin mines confiscated from Francis Godolphin I* on behalf of the local parliamentarians. Bodl. Walker c.10, f. 102.

During the 1650s Truro was a Presbyterian stronghold, dominated by a small clique within the corporation, led by Edward Nosworthy and Jacob (or James) Daniell (the mayor in 1652), and encouraged by Hugh Boscawen, who remained as recorder. Cornw. RO, B/TRU/526. Nosworthy and Daniell were willing to collaborate with the Cromwellian regime, and both served as commissioners for securing the peace of the commonwealth, under the local major-general, John Disbrowe*. TSP iv. 451. Other prominent burgesses include John Challie, a commissioner for scandalous ministers, Henry Greenfield and Thomas Trewoolas. A. and O.; CCC 539. The town’s minister from the mid-1650s was John Tingcombe, who had been appointed as an assistant to the commissioners for scandalous ministers in August 1654, and was supported by the funds for augmenting ministers and from impropriate lands. Coate, Cornw. 341; A. and O.; CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 72; 1656-7, p. 281. Religious radicalism was strongly opposed by the corporation and its allies, despite some support for heterodoxy among the inhabitants. Coate, Cornw. 349. Anna Trapnel’s arrival in the town in 1654 was at the invitation of one of the townsmen, James Hill, and she became something of a tourist attraction. According to Trapnel, ‘there came many to see me, some out of good will and love to what they had heard was of God in me, and others came to gaze, and others to catch at my words, so as to reproach me’. This last group was led by ‘Mr Powell, a teacher in these parts’ and by the clergy, who ‘rung their bells against me, and called to the rulers to take me up’. As a result, when Trapnel returned to Truro a few days later, she was arrested and brought before the quarter session. A. Trapnel, Anna Trapnel’s Report and Plea (1654), 15-16, 18-19, 25-6. There were a few Quakers in Truro in the later 1650s, but again the official response was harsh. Coate, Cornw. 349. In 1657 the mayor, Henry Burgess, imprisoned a female Quaker for visiting her friend in Truro gaol; and in the same year Tingcombe was twice interrupted in his pulpit, with the offenders being arrested by the mayor and committed by the local justices of the peace. Recs. Quakers Cornw. 3, 7, 8.

Truro’s conservatism is also shown in the electoral history of the borough during the 1650s. Under the terms of the Instrument of Government, Truro was allowed to return one MP. A. and O. In July 1654 Francis Rous was again returned, with the indenture being signed by the then mayor, John Mayowe, and 11 burgesses, including Daniell, Challie, Trewoolas and Hill. C219/44, unfol. In 1656 the MP was the local lawyer, Walter Vincent, who had recently married Nosworthy’s daughter. Vincent, whose election was noted by Henry Hatsell* at Plymouth, was immediately excluded from sitting by the protectoral council, and only took his seat in the second session, of January 1658. CJ vii. 425b, 594b; CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 418. In 1659, under the old electoral system, Vincent was again elected, this time alongside Charles Boscawen, the younger brother of Hugh. The indenture was signed by Trewoolas, as mayor, and around a dozen more burgesses. C219/46/30. Truro’s reaction to the fall of the protectorate is not known, but in December 1659 the town hosted a meeting of the Presbyterian gentry, including Daniell, Challie and Vincent, who opposed the army and declared for a free Parliament. Publick Intelligencer no. 210 (2-9 Jan. 1660), 997-8 (E.773.41). After 1660, Truro returned to something like its pre-civil war patronage, with the Boscawens again returning their own candidates at will. The Robartes interest was much weaker, but still commanded support among the freemen, and the only royalist challenge came from the Arundells of Trerice. HP Commons 1660-1690.