St. Mawes consisted of a small fishing village and Henry VIII’s still serviceable castle. The returning officer was the portreeve or mayor, appointed at the court leet of Tolverne manor, which had recently been acquired by the Tredenhams. The franchise was in the ‘free and sworn tenants’. During this period Sir Joseph Tredenham acquired complete control of the manor by first worsting and then absorbing the older interest of the Vyvyans, hereditary captains of St. Mawes Castle since Elizabethan times.1

Three single indentures were submitted at the general election of 1660. All the candidates supported the Restoration. The return of William Tredenham was attested by the mayor and some 30 ‘burgesses’, while Arthur Spry, another local landowner, had only half-a-dozen. They were seated on the merits of their returns. The third candidate was John Cloberry, one of the most trusted officers serving under George Monck. Presumably he owed his election to George Kekewich, who had been appointed captain of the castle at Monck’s request; but as he was also returned for Hedon and Launceston he did not pursue his claim. The situation was repeated in 1661, with Sir Richard Vyvyan, who had regained the castle at the Restoration, taking Cloberry’s place. Spry’s return was signed by 50 voters, against Tredenham’s 47; but only the latter claimed ‘their unanimous assent and consent’. Vyvyan’s return was not signed by the portreeve, but his 29 ‘free burgesses’ were all resident in the borough. His rivals were seated on the merits of the return, and the elections committee failed to act on the order of the House of 5 May 1662 to proceed with the merits of the election. But Tredenham died a week later, and at the by-election Vyvyan succeeded to his seat, probably unopposed. He did not retain it for long, dying on 3 Oct. 1665. The seat was contested during the recess by his son, Sir Vyell, and Tredenham’s brother Joseph. An indenture survives for each, apparently signed by different mayors, but there is no record of any proceedings before the elections committee or the House. Probably Vyvyan, who seems to have been an accommodating character, abandoned his case, since Tredenham had certainly taken his seat by the second day of the next session.2

With some financial assistance from the Government Tredenham bought the castle from Vyvyan in 1678, and installed his cousin George as permanent portreeve of the borough. Spry, a very rich man, retired at the dissolution of the Cavalier Parliament, and Tredenham himself was returned for Grampound at the first general election of 1679. His brother-in-law Henry Seymour was elected as junior Member for St. Mawes. The senior Member was the rising courtier Sidney Godolphin, returned on a separate indenture, probably as part of an electoral bargain whereby Vyvyan was given a seat at Helston. Both opposed exclusion. The election is said to have been ‘with unanimous consent and assent’, but Shaftesbury listed an ‘honest’ third candidate, John Trefusis, who has not been identified. Tredenham and Seymour were successful at the next four general elections, and the ‘corporation’ produced an address abhorring the Rye House Plot. Tredenham surrendered the borough to the Earl of Bath in November 1684, but no charter was issued. Probably he warded off the threat by opting to sit for Grampound in James II’s Parliament, thereby giving a seat to Bath’s brother-in-law (Sir) Peter Prideaux. The royal electoral agents described St. Mawes in 1688 as ‘a borough by prescription, entirely at the devotion of Sir Joseph Tredenham’. The most prominent Cornish Tory in the Convention, he was re-elected with his brother-in-law ‘by the ancient laws and customs of this borough ... unanimously and without any contradictory voice’.3