Bossiney (UK Parliament constituency)

Bossiney was a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall, one of a number of Cornish rotten boroughs, and returned two Members of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1552 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

Bossiney
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1552–1832
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	East Cornwall

History

Bossiney was one of a number of small parliamentary boroughs established in Cornwall during the Tudor period, and was not a town of any importance even when first enfranchised. The borough consisted of the hamlet of Bossiney itself and the nearby village of Trevena, both in the parish of Tintagel on the North Cornwall coast. In 1831, the borough contained only 67 houses, and had a population of 308.

The right to vote was vested in the Mayor and freemen of the borough, collectively called the burgesses; the freedom of the borough was hereditary, passing to the eldest son of any burgess possessing freehold property within the borough. The number of burgesses was always small, with only 25 being entitled to vote in 1831. In 1816 Oldfield recorded that there were only 9 voters, 8 of whom belonged to the same family.

Like most of the tiny boroughs, Bossiney was completely under the control of its "patrons", who had such influence over the voters that they could in practice choose whoever they wanted as MPs. From the middle of the 18th century, the patrons were the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and the Wortley family. Usually they chose one member each and, indeed, a formal agreement to that effect, dated 3 July 1752, survives. In Bossiney, the patrons habitually secured their interests by obtaining for the burgesses lucrative appointments in the customs-house at Padstow. In 1758, there was a dispute between Lord Edgcumbe and Samuel Martin, patron of nearby Camelford, over a Commissionership of Customs that both wanted for one of their constituents; a Camelford man was appointed, and at the election that followed in 1761 Edgcumbe was unable to secure the election of his candidate.

The abuse of government patronage was considered a scandal even in the 18th century, and in 1782 an Act of Parliament was passed to disqualify the holders of certain posts, including customs officers, from voting. While the new law was not aimed specifically at Bossiney it had a more dramatic effect there than anywhere else: the borough established an unbeatable record at the general election of 1784, when so many of the burgesses were disqualified that there was only a single qualified voter (the Vicar, Arthur Wade) to return the two MPs.

Bossiney was disfranchised by the Great Reform Act of 1832.

Members of Parliament

1553–1640

• Constituency created (1553 or possibly earlier)[1]

Parliament	First member	Second member
Parliament of 1547–1552	William Carnsew (?)	John Withypoll (?)
First Parliament of 1553	Humphrey Cavill	Edward Grimston
Second Parliament of 1553	Robert Gayer	Robert Beverley
Parliament of 1554	John Beaumont	William Roscarrock
Parliament of 1554–1555	Richard Forset	George Harrison
Parliament of 1555	Ralph Skinner	?
Parliament of 1558	Thomas Stanley	John Kempthorne
Parliament of 1559[2]	Robert Warner	Francis Walsingham
Parliament of 1563–1567	Hugh Owen	Stephen Bradden
Parliament of 1571	Robert Wrothe	George Basset
Parliament of 1572–1581	Francis Kinwellmarsh	Robert Doyly
1581–1584	Francis Bacon	Robert Redge
Parliament of 1584–1585	Sir Francis Drake[3]	John Leveson
Parliament of 1586–1587	William Pool	John Peryam
Parliament of 1588–1589	Henry Savile	John Hender
Parliament of 1593	Thomas Harris
Parliament of 1597
Parliament 0f Oct 1597	John Agmondesham[4]	Percival Hart sat for Kent
Parliament of 1601	William Hakewill	Sir Jerome Horsey
Parliament of 1604–1611	George Upton (died) 1609–11 George Calvert
Addled Parliament (1614)	John Wood
Parliament of 1621–1622		Anthony Manaton[5]
Happy Parliament (1624–1625)	Sir Richard Weston	Thomas Bevans
Useless Parliament (1625)	Sir Francis Cottington	Jonathan Prideaux
Parliament of 1625–1626	The Lord Lambart	Paul Specot
Parliament of 1628–1629		Richard Edgecumbe
No Parliament summoned 1629–1640

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Edward Herle	Parliamentarian		Anthony Nicholl	Parliamentarian
November 1640		Sir John Clotworthy[6]	Parliamentarian		Sir Christopher Yelverton	Parliamentarian
1641 (?)		Sir Ralph Sydenham	Royalist
September 1642	Sydenham disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1647		Lionel Copley
December 1648	Copley excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant			Yelverton not known to have sat after Pride's Purge
1653	Bossiney was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Thomas Povey			Samuel Trelawney
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Francis Gerard			Charles Pym
June 1660					Sir William Brereton
1661		Robert Robartes			Richard Rous
1673					Francis Robartes
February 1679		William Coryton			John Tregagle
October 1679		Charles Robartes			Narcissus Luttrell
1681					Sir Peter Colleton
1685		John Cotton			John Mounsteven
1689		Sir Peter Colleton			Humphrey Nicoll
1690					Samuel Travers
1694		Humphrey Nicoll
1695		George Booth			John Manley
1698		Sir John Pole			John Tregagle[7]
January 1701		Francis Robartes
March 1701		Thomas Watson-Wentworth
December 1701		Sir John Molesworth			John Manley
1702		William Hooker
1705		Sir Simon Harcourt	Tory
1708		Samuel Travers			Francis Foote
October 1710		Francis Robartes[8]			John Manley
December 1710		Henry Campion
1713		Sir William Pole
1714					Paul Orchard
1715		Henry Cartwright			Samuel Molyneux
1722		Robert Corker			Henry Kelsall
1727					John Hedges
1731		James Cholmondeley
1734		The Viscount Palmerston			Townshend Andrews
1737					Peregrine Poulett
May 1741		Richard Liddell			Thomas Foster
December 1741[9]		John Sabine			Christopher Tower
1742		Richard Liddell			Thomas Foster
1746		William Breton
July 1747		Edward Wortley[10]	Whig		Richard Heath
December 1747		William Ord
1752					William Montagu
1754		Edwin Sandys			Edward Wortley Montagu
1761		John Richmond Webb	Tory
1766		John Stuart	Tory
1768					Henry Luttrell	Tory
1769					Sir George Osborn
1774					Hon. Henry Luttrell	Tory
1776		Hon. Charles Stuart
1784					Bamber Gascoigne (senior)
1786					Matthew Montagu
1790		Hon. James Archibald Stuart[11]			Humphrey Minchin
April 1796					Hon. Evelyn Pierrepont
May 1796		John Stuart-Wortley			John Lubbock
1797		Hon. James Stuart-Wortley[12]	Tory
1802					John Hiley Addington	Tory
1803					George Holford
1806					Henry Baring
1807					Peter Thellusson	Tory
1808					John Otway Cuffe	Tory
1817					William Yates Peel	Tory
1818					Sir Compton Domvile
1819		Hon. John Ward	Tory
1823		John Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie	Tory[13]
1826					Edward Rose Tunno	Tory[14]
1830		Charles Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie	Tory[15]
1831		John Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie	Tory[13]
1832	Constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

General election, 2 May 1831: Bossiney[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	John Stuart-Wortley	Unopposed
	Tory	Edward Rose Tunno	Unopposed
Registered electors			c. 25
	Tory hold
	Tory hold

By-election, 16 February 1831: Bossiney[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	John Stuart-Wortley	Unopposed
Registered electors			c. 25
	Tory hold

• Caused by Stuart-Wortley's resignation

General election, 31 July 1830: Bossiney[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	Charles Stuart-Wortley	Unopposed
	Tory	Edward Rose Tunno	Unopposed
	Tory hold
	Tory hold

Notes

1. Most sources state that Bossiney was first represented in the first Parliament of 1553, which some (e.g. Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832, p. 22) refer to as the Parliament of 1552–53 since it assembled on 1 March 1553 (New Style)/1 March 1552 Old Style. Peter Dyer suggests that MPs were elected before 1552, naming William Carnsew and John Withypoll as those for 1547. (Dyer, Peter, Tintagel: a portrait of a parish. Cambridge: Cambridge Books, 2005. ISBN 0-9550097-0-7; pp. 500–01).
2. "Bossiney". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
3. "The History of Politics: The Rotten Boroughs of England". Julia Herdman Books. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
4. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/agmondesham-john-ii-1543-98
5. This name is given as Ambrose Mannington in Cobbett's Parliamentary History.
6. Clotworthy was re-elected to serve in the Long Parliament but had also been elected for Maldon, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Bossiney again.
7. Tregagle was re-elected in 1700, but following a petition alleging bribery and diversion of Duchy of Cornwall revenues, the election was declared void and a new writ issued.
8. Robartes was also elected for Bodmin, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Bossiney in this Parliament.
9. Sabine and Tower won the election of 1741, but on petition they were unseated and their defeated opponents, Liddell and Foster, declared elected in their place.
10. Wortley was also elected for Peterborough, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Bossiney.
11. Stuart adopted the surname Wortley in 1794.
12. Wortley was re-elected in 1819, but had also been elected for Yorkshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Bossiney.
13. Fisher, David R. "STUART WORTLEY, John (1801-1855), of 15 Curzon Street, Mdx". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
14. Fisher, David R. "TUNNO, Edward Rose (1794-1863), of Llangennech, nr. Llanelli, Carm.; Boverton Castle, Llantwit Major, Glam., and 19 Upper Brook Street, Mdx". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
15. Casey, Martin. "STUART WORTLEY, Hon. Charles James (1802-1844), of Wortley Hall, Yorks". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
16. Jenkins, Terry. "Bossiney". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 25 May 2020.

References

• Beatson, Robert (1807) "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme
• Brunton, D.; Pennington, D. H. (1954) Members of the Long Parliament London: George Allen & Unwin.
• Cobbett, William (1808) Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 London: Thomas Hansard
• Dyer, Peter (2005) Tintagel: a portrait of a parish. Cambridge: Cambridge Books. ISBN 0-9550097-0-7 A full list of the MPs is given as an appendix.
• Jansson, Maija (ed.) (1988), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society
• Oldfield, T. H. B. (1816) The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy.
• Philbin, J. Holladay (1965) Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Porritt, Edward; Porritt, Annie G. (1903) The Unreformed House of Commons Cambridge University Press.
• Namier, Lewis (1961) The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, 2nd ed. London: St Martin's Press.
• Smith, Henry Stooks (1973) The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847, 2nd ed., edited by F. W. S. Craig. Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications.
• Townshend, Heywood (1680) Historical Collections: or, An Exact Account of the Proceedings of the Four Last Parliaments of Q. Elizabeth (1680)
• Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 1.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 4)