West Looe

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 freemen

Number of voters:

about 60

Elections

DateCandidate
1 Feb. 1715THOMAS MAYNARD
 GEORGE DELAVAL
27 July 1717MAYNARD re-elected after appointment to office
12 Apr. 1722SIR JOHN TRELAWNY
 GEORGE DELAVAL
20 Jan. 1724EDWARD TRELAWNY vice Delaval, deceased
29 Jan. 1726EDWARD TRELAWNY re-elected after appointment to office
23 Aug. 1727EDWARD TRELAWNY
 JOHN WILLES
27 Feb. 1729WILLES re-elected after appointment to office
26 Jan. 1733THOMAS WALKER vice Trelawny, appointed to office
28 Jan. 1734WILLES re-elected after appointment to office
4 May 1734EDWARD TRELAWNY
 JOHN WILLES
20 Feb. 1735JOHN OWEN vice Trelawny, ineligible to sit
9 Feb. 1737JOHN STRANGE vice Willes, appointed to office
12 May 1741SIR CHARLES WAGER
 BENJAMIN KEENE
27 Dec. 1742WAGER re-elected after appointment to office
10 Dec. 1743JOHN FREDERICK vice Wager, deceased
2 Jan. 1745KEENE re-elected after appointment to office
2 July 1747JOHN FREDERICK
 WILLIAM NOEL
30 Nov. 1749NOEL re-elected after appointment to office

Main Article

The controlling interest at the Looes was that of Sir John Trelawny, 4th Bt., of Trelawne, who placed the seats not occupied by himself or his brother Edward at the disposal of the Administration, in return for an allowance of £500 p.a. and £1,000 in election years.1 In 1735, when he was in deep financial difficulties, his brother, who had become ineligible for a seat by accepting a commissionership of customs, paid the creditors and took over the estates, which he mortgaged to his friend and patron Sir Charles Wager, first lord of the Admiralty. In 1737, when there was a vacancy for West Looe, Wager wrote to Benjamin Keene:

My friend Mr. Trelawny ... does not forget the obligations he has to you for your great civilities to him. As he has the interest at Looe entirely, he mentioned you again for a member, but Sir Robert Walpole is for those that can attend,

and the new solicitor-general, John Strange, was chosen.2 After 1737, when Edward Trelawny was appointed governor of Jamaica, the boroughs were managed in his absence by Wager’s friend, Francis Gashry. At the general election of 1741, Wager wrote to the mayor of East Looe:

I have the favour of your letter of the 19th signed by the mayor and magistrates of both towns by which I find it will be agreeable to you to choose Mr. James Buller [nephew of Edward Trelawny] at one of the towns, as captain [Harry] Trelawny [cousin and brother-in-law] hath desired from Governor Trelawny. I was therefore glad of the ... opportunity ... I had ... to recommend Mr. Gashry to the borough of Aldeburgh in Suffolk.... There will be room for Mr. Buller to be chosen in his room and neither he nor I will be the less friends to the corporation or less serviceable to them upon any occasion than we were before, so that I hope there will be no uneasiness on that account and therefore they will be unanimous in choosing Mr. Buller and the other gentlemen that have been mentioned. I was told it was proposed to choose the Governor for one, but all governors of plantations are excluded from being chosen by an Act of Parliament. Therefore that cannot be. I have very great regard for Governor Trelawny and for all the family as well as that of Mr. Buller.3

In the event, Wager was chosen with Keene for West Looe, and Buller, although he was a Tory, with Gashry for East Looe. At subsequent elections Edward Trelawny allowed the Administration to nominate the candidates in return for suitable payment to himself.4

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Namier, Structure, 321.
  • 2. 25 Feb. 1737, Add. 32794, f. 161.
  • 3. 25 Mar. 1741, East Looe Town Trust.
  • 4. Edw. Trelawny to Francis Gashry, 19 July 1753, Vernon-Wager mss in Lib. of Congress.