reign of Edward VI by the Protector Somerset, that he might get his
own creatures into Parliament. Such were Camelford, Mitchell, Newport,
Saltash, West Looe, Bossiney, Grampound, and Penryn. Queen Mary raised
S. Ives into a borough in 1550, and Elizabeth created six more to
serve her own political purposes, S. Germans, S. Mawes, Tregony, East
Looe, Fowey, and Callington.
Mitchell is a mere hamlet, and in 1660 the franchise was solemnly
transferred from the inhabitants at large to nominees of the lord of the
manor. In 1689 it was determined that the right of election lay in the
lords of the borough, who were liable to be chosen portreeve thereof,
and the householders of the same not receiving alms. But the borough in
the latter years of its existence became a battleground of many
combatants, and as the right of voting was, until 1701, left in great
ambiguity by successive election committees, the result of the contest
could never be predicted. In 1701, the right of election for this
distracted borough was again changed. This time it was vested in the
portreeve and lord of the manor and the inhabitants paying scot and lot.
In 1784, Hawkins and Howell were elected members, and sat in Parliament
for Mitchell for twelve years, till 1796, and Sir Christopher became by
purchase the sole owner of the borough; and after Howell had ceased to
represent Mitchell, he continued as its representative to 1806, when he
surrendered his seat to Arthur Wellesley, subsequently Duke of
Wellington. The electors by this time had been reduced to five. In the
eleven years, 1807-18, there were nine elections at Mitchell, not owing
to feuds, but retirement of members. No event of importance occurred
after 1818 to 1832, except the extraordinary and significant revelation
that at the contested election of 1831, when Hawkins (Sir Christopher's
nephew) got two votes, Kenyon five, and Best three. Five voters to
return two members. In 1833 those five electors found their borough
disfranchised, a fate it richly deserved.
Penryn had been raised into the position of a borough returning two
members of Parliament, in 1553.
Mr. Courtney says of 1774: "About this period the borough of Penryn
began to be notorious through the county for the readiness of its
voters to barter their rights for pecuniary considerations. The
franchise was on such an extended basis that almost every householder,
though many of these were labourers, indigent and ignorant, was an
elector." In 1807 there were, however, but 140; in 1819 they had risen
to 328. Each got a "breakfast" and £24 for his vote.
In 1780, Sir Francis Bassett gave a feast to the whole borough; he
continued his patronage till 1807, as Lord de Dunstanville. In 1802
Swann and Milford contested a vacant seat in the borough, and
Dunstanville to secure the second seat had to resort to putting
faggot-voters on the poor-rates, the night before the election.
Petition being made against the election, it ended in a compromise,
and Swann received £10,000 besides expenses. Lord de Dunstanville,
disgusted at the expense and the weakening of his influence, abandoned
the borough. Swann thereupon gave a "breakfast" to his supporters; a
"breakfast" was synonymous with a bribe of £24. Penryn was concerned
at the retirement of its lordly patron, and founded a club in 1805 for
electors, such as would most conduce to the pecuniary welfare of the
voters. When the election of 1806 was imminent and the former patron
had withdrawn, a deputation of the members was sent to Trewithen to
that notorious election-monger, Sir Kit, to tender to him the goodwill
of the constituency. "The details of the negotiations conducted at
this interview," says Mr. Courtney, "became the subject of subsequent
investigation; but it was admitted that the voters stopped there for
four hours and dined at the baronet's table, which on this occasion,
no doubt, was more freely supplied than according to local gossip was
the custom on ordinary days. The deputation informed Sir Christopher
that Mr. Swann--the Black Swan as he was called by his enemies--who
had been nursing the borough since 1802, must obtain one of the seats,
but that the other was at his disposal. These two worthy politicians,
Hawkins and Swann, thereupon coalesced, drink and food were freely
supplied; two voters, one for each candidate, went round and gave each
elector a one-pound note to drink their health with, and the result
was that on the 1st November, 1806, the poll showed a large majority
for Swann and Hawkins over Mr. Trevanion and his colleague William
Wingfield." A petition followed, and the evidence was of such a
compromising character that Mr. Serjeant Lens abandoned the case on
behalf of Hawkins. The evidence produced was that the deputation of
voters, headed by a clergyman, which had gone to Trewithen to offer
him the borough, had associated with Sir Kit to sell their votes and
interest for twenty-four guineas apiece paid to themselves, and for
ten guineas to be handed to each of the overseers, and that the offer
was duly accepted. An address to the King for the prosecution of Sir
Christopher Hawkins and eighteen members of the committee was carried
to the House of Commons. The trial took place at Bodmin on the 19th
August, 1808, when Cobbett attended in person to watch the trial and
report proceedings in his _Political Register_. The questions in
dispute centred on the terms of the agreement; the chief witness swore
that the documents signed by Hawkins stipulated that twenty-four
guineas should be given to each of the leaders of the party, ten
guineas apiece to the two overseers and twenty shillings to each of
the voters. But this evidence was unsupported, no other of the
committee could be induced or intimidated into admitting that this had
been the agreement; no one in Penryn desired to kill the goose that
laid the golden eggs, and the defendant was acquitted, "to dabble in
borough-mongering for the rest of his life."
At the election of 1807, Sir Christopher had no place in Parliament,
but Swann sat again for Penryn.
In 1812 Hawkins wooed the borough in vain, in opposition to Philip
Gell. The Black Swan was the other member elected, but great
indignation was roused against him when it was found that he had left
his bills unpaid for treating and breakfasting his adherents.
Then a committee approached Sir Manasseh Lopes, but he declined to buy
the votes at the price of £2000.
But Swann managed to recover favour and increase the number of voters
in his constituency by 200 votes, and to form a company to provide
granite from the vicinity for Waterloo Bridge over the Thames, so
providing work for the voters of Penryn, and Hawkins and Swann were
returned. The usual petition followed, and evidence of bribery came
out. One voter swore that he had received £5, and his wife another £5;
another £7; and many others various sums from ten shillings to ten
pounds. Swann was declared guilty and imprisoned 1819-20.
In the election of 1827 it was admitted that £1850 had been distributed
among the electors. Seventy votes had been sold at £10 apiece.
Grampound had had its elections controlled by Lord Eliot. In the
election of 1796 the fifty electors received for their votes £3000, and
the patron, Eliot, pocketed £6000 himself. The patronage was then sold
to Sir Kit Hawkins, to whom a friend wrote in 1796: "Fame speaks loudly
of your doings. The borough, by her own account, is all your own, and
such is certainly preferable to Tregony. The small number of voters in
one, and the vast number in the other, pulls down the balance in favour
of Grampound, and from the continuance of Eliot we may infer that a
possession once obtained may last forty or fifty years."
But after the election of 1806 the recognized, nay undisputed patron,
Sir Christopher, keeping voters in his pay, and holding the nomination
to two seats, found that his power was weakened. His candidate, the
Nabob Fawcett, did not pay as he had promised. The electors
accordingly determined to transfer their favours to some other great
man, and eventually elected Andrew C. Johnstone, Governor of Dominica,
by twenty-seven over the Hawkins candidate, who polled only thirteen.
"Up to this time," says the historian, "a decent veil of reserve had
been thrown over the delinquencies of the Grampound electors; now it
was cast aside, and their deformities were disclosed to the view of
the whole political world. Enquiry followed enquiry, and prosecution
prosecution." The borough engaged the attention of members of
Parliament and Press correspondents. Great Cobbett went to Bodmin in
1808 to see the trial of Sir Kit, the Mayor, Recorder, and four
capital Burgesses. This petition unseated the anti-Hawkins candidate,
and a new writ was issued. It was now arranged that Cochrane, patron
of the anti-Kittite, should give £5000 for one, or £8400 for the two
seats, to be distributed, and that each of the elected should pay £12
10s. to the wives of the several electors. Each voter eventually did
get about £80. The anti-Kittites polled twenty-seven, and Mr. Hawkins'
nominee fourteen. What does the Mayor do? Strike off sufficient votes
from the anti-Kittite, so as to give the local baronet a majority of
one, and returned his nominees as duly elected. A second petition
restored Cochrane.
Sir Kit, discerning that his influence over the electors at Grampound
was passing away, determined to increase the number of voters. The
electors had consisted of an indefinite number of freemen elected at
Easter and Michaelmas by the eligers. This election was artfully
deferred till good Kittites could be secured to fill the places desired.
In 1812 Cochrane was still in possession, but he made way for
Johnston, associating Teed with him. This man gave each elector £100
in promissory notes. Johnston was, however, expelled the House in 1814
for frauds on the Stock Exchange. Thereupon in came Sir Christopher
Hawkins again. He was again brought before the notice of the House in
1818, when there appeared six candidates. Innes and Robertson were
elected by thirty-six votes: the rest (eleven) went to Teed. After
that, on Teed's petition, the whole secret of the nefarious system
came to light. The voters, it appeared, had applied to Sir Kit; but
that worthy baronet was tired of their solicitations, and refused to
advance a penny. So they turned to the Jew Manasseh Lopes, who gave
£2000 to be distributed among forty electors. But when the money
arrived, the Mayor intercepted £300 for himself, another took £140, so
that the rank and file got only £35 apiece instead of the expected
£50; £8000 was paid privily by a sitting member. Again a petition, and
Manasseh Lopes was convicted of bribery in both Devon and Cornwall,
was fined £10,000, and incarcerated at Exeter for two years.
Lord John Russell was prepared to extirpate bribery, and in particular
to disfranchise Grampound; the House of Commons agreed without a
dissentient voice, but the death of George III hindered proceedings,
and the last two members were returned.
S. Ives had been erected into a borough by Philip and Mary in 1558.
Here, after 1689, the Praeds, Whigs, were all-powerful. In 1751, after
long being stewards of the Earls of Buckinghamshire, the Stephens family
began to assert itself. Thenceforth during the long reign of George III
a severe contest for influence over the elections was waged between the
two families. In 1774 a Praed got ninety-five votes, a Drummond
ninety-eight, and Stephens was left out in the cold with seventy-one.
But the usual petition showed Praed's corruption too manifestly. Money
had been lent to the voters, with the tacit understanding that in the
event of election it was not to be asked for, and forty persons, sure
voters for Stephens, had been omitted from the rates. In 1806 Sir Kit
Hawkins, gained a share in representation; his candidate, Horner. But
Stephens got 135 votes and Horner 128; the other candidate opposing him
was left far in the rear, with only five votes. But Horner was out again
at the next election. In 1820 Sir Christopher had the appointment to
both seats entirely in his own hands.
Tregony had been made into a borough under Queen Elizabeth in 1562.
Before 1832 it was described as "destitute of trade, wealth, and
common activity."
Writing in 1877, the last Cornish historian remarks that the condition
of Tregony had passed from bad to worse. Many of its houses were then
in ruins, and the scene of desolation was spreading. In early times
Tregony had been a seaport on a tidal creek, but that was silted up,
and no boat could now reach it, so that its commercial importance was
wholly gone.
During the eighteenth century the representatives of Tregony were men
of little importance, small placemen unconnected with Cornwall. In the
long array of aliens and Court satellites, the name of one Cornish
gentleman stands out in bright relief; 1747-67, for twenty years (a
long period) Mr. Trevanion represented it. The election of 1774
excited much notice. Lord North advised a note to be written to Lord
Falmouth: "His Lordship must be told in as polite terms as possible,
that I hope he will permit me to recommend to three of his six seats
in Cornwall. The terms he expects are £2000 a seat, to which I am
ready to agree." Later on, he says that his candidate Pownall must get
in for Lostwithiel, and Conway represent Tregony, and he added: "My
noble friend (Falmouth) is rather shabby, desiring guineas instead of
pounds," but signified his will to pay rather than drop the bargain.
Again: "Gascoyne shall have the refusal of Tregony for £1000," and the
Minister complained that he saw no way of bringing him in at a cheaper
rate than any other servant of the Crown.
In 1776 the Boscawen influence was sold to Sir Kit Hawkins, but he did
not retain it for long, for he disposed of it to a Nabob, Barwell, and
the two continued on friendly terms. When the living of Cuby fell
vacant--Cuby is the parish church of Tregony--Sir Kit asked Barwell, who
now had the presentation, to give it to a friend of his, alleging that
"he had great interest" and assuring Barwell that his clerical friend
would reside in the place, and by his great activity in the borough
prevent, if possible, any opposition arising to Mr. Barwell. But at the
very next election Sir Kit ran and returned two members against Barwell.
In the contest of 1784, Lord Kenyon, a lawyer, obtained the seat by
purchase, polling 90, while his two opponents got 69 each.
In 1806 an O'Callinghan and a Yorkshire Whig, through Darlington's
interest polled against Barwell's interest 102 against 86. At this
election the following trick was played. A Tregony tailor and
publican, called Middlecoat, offered to seat Sir Jonathan Miles for
4000 guineas. At the poll the returning officer, who was biased or had
been tampered with, struck off many good votes from Miles, and gave
bad ones to others. Sir Jonathan petitioned and, for the expenses of
the petition, sent Middlecoat a large sum of money, and he prevented
the witnesses from appearing, and the sitting members were accordingly
pronounced to be duly elected. Middlecoat had secured £2500 from the
sitting nominees (Barwellians) to keep back the witnesses, as well as
£4200 from Sir Jonathan to bring them forward.
In 1812 O'Callinghan was unseated, and petitioned, showing that £5000
had been distributed among the voters; nevertheless the sitting
members were received. Holmes, one of them, said--to show what was the
degraded condition of the borough--that out of 127 votes in his
favour, 98 had been evicted into the street the day after the
election, some having been called on to pay their rents, but were
unable to do so at the moment, and others, whose annual rents were
only £8, had been mulcted in costs to the extent of £98.
Middlecoat, and four others of like spirit, went to London in 1818 to
search for candidates for Tregony and Grampound, offering the former
for £6000 and the latter for £7000. A banker and a general came down
before the election, but found that the voters would make no promise
unless the money were paid down. So they had to return to London
"proclaiming their disappointment at every turn, and cursing the
scoundrels who would not trust them."
Christopher Hawkins was returned for Mitchell in 1784, re-elected in
1790 and 1796. In June, 1799, he vacated his seat by accepting the
Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. In August, 1800, he was elected
for Grampound, again in 1802 and 1806. In 1818 he was returned for
Penryn, and in June, 1821, for S. Ives. He was created baronet on July
28th, 1791. He was Recorder of Grampound and S. Ives and, at the time
when he relinquished his seat finally, he was the father of the House
of Commons.
Sir Christopher encouraged the famous engineer and inventor Richard
Trevithick, and in the life of that worthy, by Francis Trevithick, are
given some letters that passed between them; but Mr. F. Trevithick
persistently calls Sir Christopher Sir Charles. Sir Kit was the first
man to adopt a steam thrashing-machine in 1812, an invention of
Trevithick; it was used for the first time at Trewithen in February in
that year. A committee of experts was called in to witness its
operations and report on them, and this is their report, dated
February 12th, 1812:--
"Having been requested to witness and report on the effect of steam
applied to work a mill for thrashing corn at Trewithen, we hereby
testify that a fire was lighted under the boiler of the engine five
minutes after eight o'clock, and at twenty-five minutes after nine
o'clock the thrashing mill began to work, in which time one bushel of
coal was consumed. That from the time the mill began to work to two
minutes after two o'clock, being four hours and three-quarters, fifteen
hundred sheaves of barley were thrashed clean, and one bushel of coal
more was consumed. We think there was sufficient steam remaining in the
boiler to have thrashed from fifty to one hundred sheaves more barley,
and the water in the boiler was by no means exhausted. We had the
satisfaction to observe that common labourers regulated the thrashing
mill, and in a moment of time made it go faster, slower, or entirely
cease working. We approve of the steadiness and the velocity with which
the machine worked, and in every respect we prefer the power of steam,
as here applied, to that of horse.
MATTHEW ROBERTS, Lansellyn.
THOS. NANKEVILL, Golden.
MATTHEW DOBLE, Barthlever."
Sir Christopher entered into negotiation with Trevithick about
constructing a breakwater to the harbour at S. Ives, at Pendinas Point.
It was begun, but never completed, owing to the death of the baronet.
But a good thing he did achieve, though done for a political purpose, by
indirect bribery, was the establishment of a free school at S. Ives, in
Shute Street; the charge of admission was one penny per week, and in it
navigation was taught. It was opened on April 11th, 1822.
In the diary of Captain John Tregerthen Short of the events taking
place at S. Ives between 1817 and 1838 we have: "1828, June 10th. At
10 a.m. Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart., and Wellesley Long Pole, Esq.,
the former supporting the cause of the Right Hon. Sir Charles
Arbuthnot, attended at the Town Hall, where Wellesley Long Pole, Esq.,
resigned the contest, and Sir Charles Arbuthnot was elected without
opposition. Immediately afterwards Mr. Wellesley Pole made an active
and successful canvass of the town for another election, and left S.
Ives at 10 p.m., having given each voter 5s., and Sir Christopher
Hawkins gave all his friends 5s."
"July 21st.--All Mr. Wellesley's voters had a public dinner; each
received one guinea to defray the expense of the dinner, which came to
7s. 3d. per man." Oh, what a falling off is here! Only 5s. each voter,
whereas elsewhere, at Grampound, Tregony, Penryn, and Mitchell, a free
and independent elector would turn up his nose at £10. But Captain
Short does not inform us what the _douceurs_ had been that were paid
previous to the election.
Sir Christopher Hawkins died of erysipelas at Trewithen on April 6th,
1829.
Captain Short enters on that day:--
"Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart., departed this life this morning in
the seventy-first year of his age. His death will be greatly felt and
deplored by hundreds. His charitable contributions amongst the
indigent will be found greatly wanting. A more generous and benevolent
landlord could not be found. He was never known to distrain for rent.
He established a Free School in S. Ives for the education of the poor,
and gave the sum of £100 towards enlarging the Wesleyan Methodist
Chapel in this town."
The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1830 says that Sir Kit Hawkins's
property at S. Ives was sold then, "which secures the purchaser a seat
in Parliament, for the borough was lately sold by auction in London
for the sum of £55,000. It is reported that the purchaser is the
Marquess of Cleveland."
A bad bargain, for three years after the Reform Bill was passed, and
S. Ives ceased to be a pocket borough.
FOOTNOTE:
[31] Baptized at Probus 29th May, 1758.
ANNE JEFFERIES
Moses Pitt, a publisher in London, a native of S. Teath, in 1696
published the following letter to the Bishop of Gloucester. There are
two editions of it, with slight and insignificant variations both in
the preliminary address and in the account of Anne Jefferies.
The preamble we omit.
"Anne Jefferies (for that was her maiden name), of whom the following
strange things are related, was born in the parish of S. Teath, in the
county of Cornwall, in December, 1626, and she is still living in
1696, being in the seventieth year of her age. She is married to one
William Warren, formerly hind to the late eminent physician Dr.
Richard Lewes, deceased, and now lives as a hind to Sir Andrew
Slanning, of Devon, Bart.