Although West Looe consisted only of a single street and a few straggling cottages, it had a longer corporate history than its neighbour, and its franchise was wider, consisting of eight ‘capital burgesses’ and 54 ‘free tenants’ in 1679. Perhaps in consequence the Trelawny interest was less dominant, and was exercised chiefly through the corporation, which controlled the freeman roll. At the general election of 1660 the borough returned their two most persistent rivals, John Buller of Morval, the recorder, and John Kendall of Treworgey. But Buller transferred to his own family borough of Saltash in 1661, leaving Jonathan Trelawny I able to return his brother John, a courtier, and two placemen in succession, the eldest son of Secretary Nicholas, and Sir Henry Vernon, a nephew of Lord Treasurer Southampton. Trelawny’s interest was strengthened by the election of his brother-in-law, Henry Seymour I, as recorder for life in 1665, and when Vernon died he was replaced by his colleague’s nephew and namesake, the heir to Trelawne, though not until 30 new freemen, many of them non-resident, had been admitted to the franchise.1

The sitting Members retained their seats as opponents of exclusion at both elections of 1679, despite persistent opposition from the Kendall interest. While John Kendall contested East Looe, his cousin Thomas of Killigarth (elder brother of James) stood repeatedly for West Looe. In February 1679 the situation was complicated by the fact that the younger Trelawny was serving as mayor. He avoided flagrant illegality by sending up two indentures; in one he returned his uncle, in the other he was himself returned by the steward and ‘burgesses’. Kendall not unnaturally complained to the House of these ‘undue practices’, alleging that he had himself been ‘elected by the major part of the inhabitants’; but his petition was never reported. In the autumn Kendall was partnered by Humphrey Courtney in the country interest; they were unsuccessful, and their petition never reached the floor of the House. Although the younger Trelawny was already dead when the second Exclusion Parliament met, no writ was issued for a by-election. In 1681 John Trelawny I stood with a distant cousin, Jonathan II. Their indenture, sealed by an illiterate mayor, claimed the unanimous consent of the ‘burgesses’, and bore 52 signatures, the largest number of the period. Courtney and Kendall petitioned again, but the Oxford Parliament was dissolved before they could be heard.2

West Looe, like its sister borough, produced a loyal address abhorring the ‘Association’ in 1682 and surrendered its charter in 1684. There the resemblance ends, for on his accession James II ordered the charter to be restored without modification. With admirable temperance, perhaps inspired by their new recorder, Bishop Trelawny, the corporation ordered a mere two bottles of Canary to celebrate. The bishop’s brother Henry and James Kendall, both army officers, were elected to the new Parliament. Kendall, having succeeded to the Killigarth estate, went over to the Opposition in the second session, and in April 1688 the royal electoral agents, noting that the borough was at the bishop’s devotion, approved as court candidates Henry Trelawny and Philip Mayow of Bray, whose family had been prominent in the borough in Elizabethan times. The mayor and three aldermen were removed by order-in-council in August; but at the general election of 1689 Trelawny was re-elected with another officer, Percy Kirke. Both had played prominent parts in the Revolution.3