Callington (UK Parliament constituency)

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Callington
Borough constituency
Created: 1585
Abolished: 1832
Type: House of Commons
Members: two

Callington was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1585 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.

Contents

[edit] History

The borough consisted of most of the town of Callington in the East of Cornwall. Callington was the last of the Cornish boroughs to be enfranchised, returning its first members in 1585; like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start, and was never substantial enough to have a mayor and corporation.

The right to vote in Callington was disputed until a decision of the House of Commons in 1821 settled it as resting with "freeholders of the borough and ... life-tenants of freeholders, resident for 40 days before the election and rated to the poor at 40 shillings or more". This considerably enlarged the electorate, for there had been only 42 voters in the borough in 1816, but the Parliamentary return of 1831 reported that 225 were qualified. In the 18th century the power of the "patron" to influence the voters in Callington was considered absolute; the patronage originally rested with the Rolle family, then passed to the Dowager Lady Orford, mother of The Earl of Orford. By 1816 it had passed to Lord Clinton [1], but was no longer as secure as it had been, so that the Coryton family was sufficiently influential to challenge his power on occasion.

In 1831, the borough had a population of 1,082, and 225 houses; the part of the town outside the borough boundaries contained only a further eight houses, leaving no scope to enlarge it. It was disfranchised by the Great Reform Act in 1832.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1585-1640

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] 1640-1832

Year First member First party Second member Second party
November 1640 Sir Arthur Ingram Parliamentarian Hon. George Fane Royalist
August 1642 Ingram died August 1642 - seat vacant
January 1643 Fane disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1646 Lord Clinton Thomas Dacres
December 1648 Clinton and Dacres excluded in Pride's Purge - both seats vacant
1653 Callington was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 James Carew Anthony Buller
May 1659 Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660 Robert Rolle Edward Herle
June 1660 John Coryton
July 1660 Sir Hugh Pollard
May 1661 Allen Brodrick Sir Cyril Wyche
June 1661 Sir Henry Bennet
1665 Samuel Rolle
February 1679 John Coryton
October 1679 Richard Carew William Trevisa
1681 William Coryton
1685 Sir John Coryton
1689 Jonathan Prideaux
February 1690 Francis Fulford
October 1690 Jonathan Prideaux
1695 Sir William Coryton Francis Gwyn
1698 Francis Fulford
January 1701 Robert Rolle
December 1701 Samuel Rolle
1702 John Acland
1703 Sir William Coryton
1712 Henry Manaton
1713 Sir John Coryton
1719 Thomas Coplestone Whig
1722 Thomas Lutwyche
1727 Sir John Coryton
1734 Isaac le Heup
1741 Hon. Horatio Walpole Whig
1748 Edward Bacon
1754 Hon. Sewallis Shirley John Sharpe
1756 Fane William Sharpe
1761 Richard Stevens
1768 Thomas Worsley
1771 William Skrine
1774 John Dyke Acland
1778 George Stratton[2]
1780 John Morshead
1784 Sir John Call Paul Orchard
1801 John Inglett-Fortescue
1803 Ambrose St John [3]
1806 William Wickham William Garrow
1807 Lord Binning[4] Tory Thomas Carter
1810 William Stephen Poyntz
1812 Sir John Leman Rogers
1813 Hon. Charles Trefusis
1818 Hon. Edward Pyndar Lygon Tory Sir Christopher Robinson Tory
1820[5] Matthias Attwood Whig William Thompson Whig
1826 Alexander Baring Whig
1830 William Bingham Baring Whig
1831 Henry Bingham Baring Tory Hon. Edward Herbert Tory
1832 Constituency abolished

Notes

  1. ^ The WP article "Baron Clinton" gives his name as Robert Cotton St John Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton.
  2. ^ Stratton's election in 1778 was declared void, but he won the 1779 by-election that resulted
  3. ^ This Ambrose St John was clearly NOT Ambrose St John (1815-1875)
  4. ^ The Earls of Haddington were referred to as "Lord Binning", before succeeding their fathers. Thomas Hamilton became the 9th Earl in 1828.
  5. ^ Robinson and Lygon were initially declared re-elected in 1820, defeating Attwood and Thompson, but the result was reversed on petition

[edit] References

  • D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
  • "Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803" (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
  • Lewis Namier, "The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III" (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
  • J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page


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