Fowey

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in the tenants of the Prince of Wales (the lord of the manor) capable of being portreeves and in inhabitants paying scot and lot

Number of voters:

60-100

Elections

DateCandidate
28 Jan. 1715HENRY VINCENT
 JONATHAN ELFORD
7 Dec. 1719NICHOLAS VINCENT vice Henry Vincent, deceased
13 Apr. 1722NICHOLAS VINCENT
 JOHN GOODALL
15 Mar. 1725WILLIAM BROMLEY jun. vice Goodall, deceased
27 Jan. 1727RICHARD FITZWILLIAM, Visct. Fitzwilliam, vice Vincent, deceased
25 Aug. 1727RICHARD FITZWILLIAM, Visct. Fitzwilliam
 JONATHAN RASHLEIGH
30 Apr. 1734JOHN HEDGES
 JONATHAN RASHLEIGH
4 July 1737WILLIAM WARDOUR vice Hedges, deceased
13 May 1741JONATHAN RASHLEIGH
 WILLIAM WARDOUR
30 July 1746GEORGE EDGCUMBE vice Wardour, deceased
2 July 1747JONATHAN RASHLEIGH
 GEORGE EDGCUMBE

Main Article

In 1715 the chief Fowey families were the Rashleighs, Tories, and the Treffrys, Whigs, each of whom owned a great deal of property in the town. Neither of these families, however, represented it during the reign of George I, when one seat was filled by another local family, the Vincents, Tories turned Whig, and the other by Tories, without a contest. The Vincent interest died with Nicholas Vincent in 1726, while that of the Treffrys went into abeyance ten years later on the death of William Treffry, the local collector of customs.

From 1727 Fowey was shared by the Rashleighs, who returned themselves, with the 1st Lord Edgcumbe, Walpole’s chief electoral manager in Cornwall, who returned government supporters. In 1740 Thomas Pitt, the Prince of Wales’s Cornish electoral manager, wrote:

Could Mr. Rashleigh be prevailed upon to exert his interest in this borough, he might carry both members. But he seems inclinable to sit still and to be chosen without trouble. The returning officer at the last election was the mayor of the town, for want of a portreeve, who is the proper returning officer, and to be chosen by the Prince’s tenants at the manor court. Mr. John Kimber of Fowey, at the desire of Mr. Rashleigh, has been lately appointed steward of the manor of Fowey, and may at any time hold a court, and appoint a returning officer.1

In the event, a government supporter was returned with Jonathan Rashleigh without a contest. In 1747 Pitt, ‘sifting and enquiring’ at Fowey, wrote (19 June): ‘if I can do it shall I engage for two at Fowey? May Rashleigh be turned out? Won’t it disoblige the Tories too much?’2 Once again, however, Rashleigh was returned unopposed, together with Edgcumbe’s son.

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Chatham mss.
  • 2. HMC Fortescue, i. 110, 114.