Borough

Bere Alston was arguably the most nondescript of Devon’s boroughs, consisting of ‘a few cob cottages, a market house and a poor house’. Browne Willis* observed that there were fewer than ‘80 poor houses’. Several ‘persons of quality’ owned freeholds and property in the borough, though by far the largest landowner was Sir Francis Drake, 3rd Bt. In 1690 the lordship of the manor was in the hands of Sir John Maynard*, a friend of Drake to whom he had granted the leases of mills and other borough property.

Barnstaple’s economic decline was well advanced by the late 17th century, much of its trade in wool having been lost to nearby Bideford. Control over the town’s parliamentary seats during this period was shared between the corporation and the proprietors of the adjacent manor of Raleigh. The Chichester family had been the chief gentry family in the Barnstaple area for many generations, the manor having been in their possession for much of the century.

Ashburton, which consisted ‘chiefly of one long street’, was the principal town in south Devon and was dominated by the woollen industry. Elections were mainly under the control of the gentry owners of the two moieties of the manor, although the extent to which they might exert such control was often determined by the inclinations of the ‘independent interest’ within the town, an important element of which was the Dissenting tradesmen (indeed the portreeve and leading inhabitants petitioned in December 1696 against the landed qualification proposed in a bill regulating elections).

Derby was a prosperous town, noted in 1701 for its newly built houses. Its chief trading interests were lead, tin and malt, a fact reflected in the borough’s petitions to Parliament for private legislation to make the Derwent navigable to the Trent with the aim of cutting the transport costs of these bulky items. The navigation project produced a consensus in the town, but was opposed by various landowners and hence became an issue in county elections, not least because of the large number of freeholders resident in the borough.Add. 47057, f. 105; CJ, xi. 449; xiii. 509; xiv.

Electoral conflict at Cockermouth revolved around the rivalry among the Duke of Somerset, the Whartons and the neighbouring gentry. The interest of the 6th Duke of Somerset stemmed from his possession of the lordship of the manor, gained in 1682 by his marriage to the heir of the Percy earls of Northumberland.

The main electoral interests at Carlisle, a garrison town since the 11th century and incorporated in the 13th century, were the corporation and the governor of the castle, though the borough’s cathedral also conferred some influence upon the diocesan hierarchy, an interest utilized throughout the period by William Nicolson, first as archdeacon and later as bishop.

Truro was the centre of the Cornish tin industry and the seat of the stannary courts. Celia Fiennes thought it second only in importance to Launceston and Browne Willis* commented on its ‘great inland trade’, which redounded to the benefit of the corporation. Despite the claims of the freemen, Truro was a corporation borough much influenced by local families. Chief among these were the Boscawens, whose seat at Tregothnan lay a short distance down the River Fal, and the Vincents of Trelavan, five miles from St. Austell.

Defoe described Tregony as: ‘a town of very little trade . . . but what is carried on under the merchants of Falmouth, or Truro; the chief thing to be said of this town is that it sends Members to Parliament’. Browne Willis* concurred, noting it was ‘a poor market town’. The most important interest was that of Hugh Boscawen I*, recorder and lord of the manor, but the Trevanions of nearby Carhayes also had an influence.Defoe, Tour ed. Cole, 239; Bodl. Willis 5, ff. 144, 156.

The right of election at Saltash was in the holders of the local burgages and in the corporation, whose members had to be burgage holders in the borough. The chief interests were those of two neighbouring landowners: the Bullers, tenants in chief under the duchy of Cornwall, and the Carews of Antony, who together owned most of the burgages. Both families suffered minorities during this period, making it difficult to determine which person exercised the predominant interest.

A borough by prescription, St. Mawes was described by Browne Willis* as ‘a small hamlet’ whose inhabitants depended on the fishing trade. The dominant interest was that the Tredenham family, who, as lords of the manor, appointed the portreeve (sometimes called mayor), who was the returning officer. The Court was able to exercise some influence through its nomination of the captain of the castle, a post worth £80 p.a.Ibid. 166–8.