Mitchell, or St Michael (sometimes also called St Michael's Borough or Michaelborough), was a rotten borough consisting of the town (or village) of Mitchell, Cornwall. From the first Parliament of Edward VI, in 1547, it elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons.
History
The borough encompassed parts of two parishes, Newlyn East and St Enoder. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start.
The franchise in Mitchell was a matter of controversy in the 17th century, but was settled by a House of Commons resolution on 20 March 1700 which stated "That the right of election of members to serve in Parliament for the Borough of St Michael's, in the County of Cornwall, is in the portreeves, and lords of the manor, who are capable of being portreeves, and the inhabitants of the said borough paying scot and lot": this gave the vote to most of the male householders.
The borough was often not in the complete control of a single proprietor, the voters being swayed between those of the lords of the manor from whom they expected to receive most benefit in return. Namier quotes a memorandum on the state of the Cornish boroughs from Lord Edgcumbe to Prime Minister Newcastle in 1760, describing the Mitchell voters as
The landowners, however, had other expedients for gaining control. The number of voters, which in 1784 had been at least 39, was reduced by 1831 to just seven, achieved by pulling down a number of houses in the borough and letting those houses that still stood on conditions which prevented the occupiers appearing on the parish rates. The proprietors by the 1820s were the Earl of Falmouth (a Boscawen) and Sir Christopher Hawkins, Hawkins having purchased his interest some years previously from Sir Francis Basset; but Mitchell having thus been reduced to one of the smallest of all the rotten boroughs (in 1831, the borough had a population of approximately 90, and 23 houses), it was naturally disfranchised by the Reform Act 1832.
Mitchell's early MPs included the explorer and statesman Walter Raleigh, who sat briefly for the borough in the 1590s while out of favour at court and so unable to secure a more prestigious seat. A later MP was the future Duke of Wellington, who as Sir Arthur Wellesley represented the borough from January to May 1807, for part of which time he was a junior minister (Chief Secretary for Ireland) in the Duke of Portland's second government.
Members of Parliament
1547–1629
ParliamentFirst memberSecond memberParliament of 1547–1552Ralph CholmleyHugh CartwrightFirst Parliament of 1553Robert BeverleyHumphrey MoseleySecond Parliament of 1553Francis GoldsmithEdward ChamberlainParliament of 1554Clement TussardAndrew TussardParliament of 1554–1555Paul StamfordParliament of 1555John ArundellJohn ThomasParliament of 1558Thomas GardinerParliament of 1559Drue DruryRobert ColshillParliament of 1562Robert HoptonThomas WilsonParliament of 1571Edward StaffordFrancis AlfordParliament of 1572–1581Charles ListerThomas WestParliament of 1584–1585Edward BarkerJames EriseyParliament of 1586–1587Thomas CosworthHenry SumasterParliament of 1588–1589Edward CosworthJames ClarkeParliament of 1593Sir Walter RaleighRichard ReynellParliament of 1597–1598John Arundell (of Trerice)John CarewParliament of 1601George ChudleighWilliam CholmleyParliament of 1604–1611William CaryCobbett spells the name as "Carpe" William HakewillAddled Parliament (1614)Christopher HodsonWalter HickmanParliament of 1621–1622Richard CarewJohn St AubynHappy Parliament (1624–1625)John HollesHolles was also elected for East Retford, which he chose to represent, and never sat for MitchellDenzil Holles John SawleUseless Parliament (1625) Henry Sandys Sir John SmithParliament of 1625–1626 Francis CrossingParliament of 1628–1629 Francis Buller John SparkeNo Parliament summoned 1629–1640
1640–1832
YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640Double return Peter Courtney, William Chadwell, Francis Basset and Samuel Cosworth were all named in the return, though Cosworth's name was later taken off. The Parliament was dissolved before the dispute could be resolved or any of the four could take their seatNovember 1640 William Chadwell Royalist John ArundellArundell was also elected for Bodmin, which he chose to represent, and never sat for MitchellRoyalist1640 Robert HolborneRoyalistAugust 1642Holborne disabled from sitting – seat vacant Thomas Temple was apparently elected after the Civil War to fill the vacancy, but there is no evidence that he ever took his seatJanuary 1644Chadwell disabled from sitting – seat vacant1647Lord KerrDecember 1648Kerr excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653Mitchell was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659 James Launce Richard LobbMay 1659Not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660 Thomas Carew Heneage FinchFinch was also elected for Canterbury, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Mitchell May 1660 John Alleyn 1661 Matthew Wren Sir Edward Mosley 1665 The Lord Hawley 1673 Humphrey Borlase 1679 Sir John St Aubyn Walter Vincent 1681 Sir William Russell Tory Henry Vincent 1685 Thomas Price John Vivian ToryJanuary 1689 The Viscount FanshaweExpelled from the House for refusing to take the oath of loyalty to William and Mary Tory Francis Vyvyan (MP for Mitchell) September 1689 William Coryton December 1689 Humphrey Courtney March 1690 Anthony Rowe Francis Scobell ToryNovember 1690 Humphrey Courtney 1695 Thomas Vyvyan 1697 John Tregagle John Povey 1698 Sir John Hawles WhigJanuary 1701 William Beaw Anthony Rowe March 1701 Sir Richard Vyvyan ToryDecember 1701 William Courtney 1702 Renatus Bellott Tory Francis Basset Tory 1705 Sir William Hodges Whig Hugh Fortescue Whig 1710 Abraham Blackmore Tory Richard Belasyse Tory 1713 Sir Henry Belasyse Tory John Statham Tory 1715 Nathaniel Blakiston Robert MolesworthCreated Viscount Molesworth (in the Peerage of Ireland), July 1716 Whig 1722 Charles Selwyn John Hedges 1727 Henry Kelsall Thomas Farrington 1734 Thomas Watts Robert Ord 1741 Edward Clive John Ord May 1745 Richard Lloyd November 1745 Sir Edward Pickering 1747 Thomas Clarke Albert Nesbitt 1753 Arnold Nesbitt 1754 John Stephenson Robert Clive 1755At the election of 1754, Clive and Stephenson were initially declared to have defeated their opponents Luttrell and Hussey, but the result was reversed on petition Simon Luttrell Richard Hussey 1761 John Stephenson James ScawenScawen was re-elected in 1774 but had also been elected for Surrey, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Mitchell 1774 Hon. Thomas Howard 1779 Francis Hale 1780 Hon. William Hanger 1784 David Howell Sir Christopher HawkinsAt the election of 1784 there was a double return, one naming Howell and Hawkins as elected, the other naming Howell and Roger Wilbraham, they having tied with 21 votes each. (Howell had 27 votes and the fourth candidate, William Augustus Spencer Boscawen, 15.) On scrutiny of the votes the Committee struck off four votes that had been credited to Wilbraham, and added one to Hawkins that had been disallowed by the Returning Officer, and declared Hawkins duly elected. Tory 1796 Sir Stephen Lushington Whig 1799 John Simpson 1802 Robert Dallas Tory Robert Sharpe Ainslie 1805 Earl of Dalkeith 1806 Sir Christopher HawkinsHawkins was also elected for Grampound and Penryn; he chose to represent Grampound, and did not sit for Mitchell in this Parliament Tory Frederick Trench ToryJanuary 1807 Hon. Sir Arthur Wellesley Tory Henry Conyngham Montgomery May 1807 Edward Leveson-Gower Tory George Galway Mills July 1807 Sir James Hall, Bt 1808 Charles Trelawny-Brereton 1809 John Bruce 1812 George Hobart 1813 Hon. Edward Law ToryAugust 1814 Charles Trelawny-Brereton December 1814 Lord Binning Tory 1818 Sir George Staunton, Bt William Leake 1820 William Taylor Money April 1826 Henry Labouchere WhigJune 1826 William Leake Whig 1830 Hon. Lloyd Kenyon Tory John Heywood Hawkins Whig 1831 Hon. William Best Tory1832 Constituency abolished
Notes
References
D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954) Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988) J. E. Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949) T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816) J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)