St. Germans

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Elections

DateCandidate
13 Dec. 1562WILLIAM MOHUN
 WILLIAM HYDE
1571JOHN COSGARNE
 CHARLES GLEMHAM
17 Apr. 1572THOMAS AYSHE
 RICHARD ELIOT
9 Nov. 1584GEORGE CAREW 1
 HENRY DYNNE 2
1586THOMAS BODLEY
 EDWARD BARKER
8 Nov. 1588HENRY BARRINGTON 3
n.d.WILLIAM LANGHARNE
1593JOHN GLANVILLE
 SAMPSON LENNARD
21 Sept. 1597ROBERT HITCHAM 4
26 Sept. 1597JOHN CHAMBERLAIN 5
12 Oct. 1597GEORGE CAREW 6 vice Hitcham, chose to sit for West Looe
26 Sept. 1601GEORGE CAREW
1 Oct. 1601JOHN OSBORNE

Main Article

Quite how St. Germans came to send MPs to Parliament has not been ascertained. A small market town, once the seat of the diocese of Cornwall, it had come into the hands of John Eliot, who in 1577 was succeeded as lord of the manor by his nephew Richard. The borough was not incorporated and its portreeve had a hand in choosing the Members. This official, appointed from the local family of Kekewick, was chosen annually at the court leet. It is in the highest degree unlikely that either the portreeve or the lord of the manor carried sufficient weight to secure the enfranchisement of St. Germans. John Eliot never sat in Parliament so it is in any case difficult to see what his interest could have been. At a guess the man responsible was the 2nd Earl of Bedford, one of whose friends and supporters was the senior 1563 MP, William Mohun, of the Cornwall county family. But Bedford would not have approved of the second 1563 man, William Hyde, a Catholic, put off the commission of the peace in his own county more or less at the time of the election. Hyde had a central connexion with Sir Robert Dudley, and a local connexion with the borough through his sister-in-law Thomasine, who held lands there left to her by her late husband John Kekewick. The admission of the first Members was challenged, St. Germans being one of the boroughs ordered by the Commons, 22 Jan. 1563, ‘to show ... why they be returned in this Parliament’. What, if any, evidence was produced is not known. All that can be said is that MPs continued to be returned for the little town throughout the reign.7

The general pattern at St. Germans is that one local man was returned with an outsider. In 1571 John Cosgarne came in through the local Vivian family and Charles Glemham, a Bedfordshire country gentleman, through the influence of the Earl of Bedford. Next year Thomas Ayshe, a Bath lawyer, was returned with John Eliot’s nephew, Richard. In 1584 the MPs were George Carew, who himself attributed his return to his brother-in-law George Kekewick the portreeve, and Henry Dynne, unidentified. Thomas Bodley (1586) had local connexions, though it is not clear exactly how he came in; his colleague Edward Barker was an ecclesiastical lawyer. William Langharne (1589) has not been identified, but may have been a servant of Ralegh, whose influence may also be seen in the return of John Glanville (1593). The other 1593 Member was a nominee of the Cecils. Henry Barrington (1589) was of an Essex gentry family and John Chamberlain (1597) was a Gloucestershire gentleman, but in neither case is the patronage obvious. A glimpse of the machinery at work, however, can be obtained in the events of the election of this year. Robert Hitcham, a London lawyer, was returned on 21 Sept., probably through Cecil’s influence, but, for some reason, a rearrangement proved necessary, it being noted on his St. Germans return that ‘by the agreement of the parties’ he was ‘returned unto another borough named West Looe’. One of ‘the parties’ must have been the local Carew/Kekewick people, the other was presumably someone in the vicinity arranging the patronage on Cecil’s behalf, for the six days between Hitcham’s return for St. Germans and his return for West Looe would not have permitted direct consultation. Carew duly came in for St. Germans on 12 Oct. 1597 and again in 1601, this time with John Osborne, a Cecil nominee who worked in the Exchequer.

Authors: R.C.G. / P. W. Hasler

Notes

  • 1. C219/29/29.
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. C219/31/17.
  • 4. C219/33/53.
  • 5. C219/33/54.
  • 6. C219/33/55.
  • 7. D. Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornw. ii. 403, 409; CJ, i. 63.