CORYTON, John II (1648-90), of Newton Ferrers, Cornw.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1679
6 May - 17 Nov. 1685
28 Feb. - July 1690

Family and Education

bap. 21 Jan. 1648 1st s. John Coryton I, and bro. of William Coryton. educ. Exeter, Oxf. 1666. m. lic. 22 Feb. 1672, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Sir Richard Chiverton, Skinner and merchant, of Clerkenwell Green, Mdx., 2 da. d.v.p. suc. fa. as 2nd Bt. Aug. 1680.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Cornw. 1673-80, 1689; j.p. Cornw. 1681-July 1688, Oct. 1688-?d., Devon 1682-July 1688; sheriff, Cornw. 1683-4; freeman, Saltash 1683; mayor, Callington 1684-5, alderman 1685-Oct. 1688, alderman, Liskeard 1685-Oct. 1688; stannator, Foymore 1686.2

Biography

Coryton first stood for Newport at a by-election in 1678. He was defeated by Ambrose Manaton, and his petition was never reported. But he was successful at the next general election, when he may also have contested Launceston. Shaftesbury marked him ‘base’, but no committees can be definitely allotted to him, and he was absent from the division on the first exclusion bill. At the autumn election he stood down in his brother’s favour. As mayor of Callington in 1685, he returned himself and his brother, but he probably never took his seat, owing to illness, and his election was eventually declared void. He followed the lead of Sir John Carew in returning negative answers to the lord lieutenant’s questions on the Tests and the Penal Laws, and was removed from county office. James II’s electoral agents noted that he controlled one seat at Callington, which he was to represent for the rest of his life. According to Antony Rowe he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, but otherwise he was totally inactive in the Convention. Re-elected in 1690, he was buried at St. Mellion on 30 July.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Gillian Hampson

Notes

  • 1. Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 101.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1685, pp. 66, 257; HMC Var. i. 328; J. Tregoning, Laws of the Stannaries, 57.
  • 3. CJ, ix. 518, 731.