Camelford was a
rotten borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorate ...
in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...
which returned two
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members oft ...
to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
in the
English and later
British Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...
from 1552 to 1832, when it was abolished by the
Great Reform Act
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...
.
History
The borough consisted of the town of
Camelford
Camelford ( kw, Reskammel) is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, situated in the River Camel valley northwest of Bodmin Moor. The town is approximately ten miles (16 km) north of Bodmin and is governed by ...
, a market town in northern Cornwall, and part of the surrounding
Lanteglos-by-Camelford parish. Like most of the
Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the
Tudor period
The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began with t ...
, it was a rotten borough from the start.
The right to vote was disputed in the 18th century, but according to a judgment of 1796, belonged to those "free burgesses" who were resident householders paying
scot and lot. The number of voters varied as new free burgesses were created, but was estimated to be 31 in 1831. Free burgesses were made only by nomination of the "patron", who owned all the houses in the borough, and the voters always voted in accordance with the patron's instructions.
The patronage, and the borough, changed hands several times. In the 1760s, before the exclusive voting rights of the free burgesses were established, the elections were managed by
Charles Phillips for the government,
[Page 336, Namier, Lewis (1957) '']The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III
''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' was a book written by Lewis Namier. At the time of its first publication in 1929 it caused a historiographical revolution in understanding the 18th century by challenging the Whig view ...
'', 2nd ed. London: St Martin's Press and Camelford was considered a secure Treasury Borough (one where ministers could nominate the MPs as a form of patronage). Later the power of the patron became more complete, and in 1812
The Duke of Bedford was able to sell it for £32,000, forcing its MP,
Henry Brougham, to find a new seat as his radical politics were unacceptable to the new owner. From 1814 until the
Great Reform Act
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...
, the owner was
the Earl of Darlington (later Marquess and Duke of Cleveland).
Cleveland was forced to secure his influence by regular payments to the voters, making Camelford one of the most notorious examples of corruption that were cited at the time of the Reform Act. In 1819, after two successive elections had been declared void and all the candidates disqualified for "treating", the writ was suspended, temporarily depriving the borough of its representation, although this only lasted until a new Parliament was summoned the following year. The ''Morning Chronicle'' noted in 1830 that ''"Everyone has heard of what Camelford cost the Marquess of Cleveland till the arrangement with the Marquess of Hertford. The Members who were returned for the marquess paid the voters in £1 notes enclosed in a deal box marked 'China'."''
In 1831, the borough had an estimated population of 597, and 110 houses.
Members of Parliament
1553-1640
1640-1832
Notes
References
*
Brock, Michael (1973) ''The Great Reform Act'' London: Hutchinson
* Brunton, D. &
Pennington, D. H.
Donald Henshaw Pennington (15 June 1919 – 28 December 2007) was a historian of 17th-century England. He taught at Manchester and Oxford universities, becoming a tutor at Balliol College, Oxford in 1965.
Donald was born in Marple, Greater Manche ...
(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 Hansar
* Courtney, William Prideaux (1889) ''The Parliamentary Representation of Cornwall to 1832''. London: Printed for private circulation (75 copies only)
* Jansson, Maija (ed.) (1988) ''Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons)'' Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society
* Philbin, J. Holladay (1965) ''Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales'' New Haven: Yale University 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 (comp.) (1680) ''Historical Collections:: or, An exact account of the proceedings of the four last Parliaments of Q. Elizabeth of famous memory: wherein is contained the complete journals both of the Lords and Commons, taken from the original records of their Houses. ... Together with the most considerable passages of the history of those times'' London: Printed for T. Basset, W. Crooke, and W. Cadema
British History Online - list of speakers in the Parliaments of 1656 and 1658-9
Further reading
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camelford (Uk Parliament Constituency)
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1552
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1832
Parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall (historic)
Rotten boroughs
Camelford