St Michaels (UK Parliament Constituency)
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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 Mitchell (sometimes known as Michael or St Michael's) is a village in mid Cornwall, England. It is situated 14 miles (22 km) northeast of Redruth and 17 miles (27 km) west-southwest of Bodmin on the A30 trunk road. Mitchell straddl ...
. 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 St Newlyn East ( kw, Eglosniwlin) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is approximately three miles (5 km) south of Newquay. The name St Newlyn East is locally abbreviated to Newlyn East and acc ...
and St Enoder. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the
Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, 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 Englan ...
, 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 Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
to Prime Minister Newcastle in 1760, describing the Mitchell voters as ''"in general low, indigent people, howill join such of the Under Lords from whom they have reason to expect most money and favours.
Admiral Boscawen Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, PC (19 August 171110 January 1761) was a British admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall, England. He is known principally for his various naval commands during ...
..., by supplying some of the voters with money and conferring favours on others, seems to be adding very considerably to the strength of his interest."''Page 304, Lewis Namier, '' The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957) 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 Sir Christopher Hawkins, 1st Baronet FRS (29 May 1758 – 6 April 1829) was a Cornish landowner, mine-owner, Tory Member of Parliament, and patron of steam power. He was Recorder of Grampound, of Tregony, and of St Ives, Cornwall. The 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 Great Reform Act of 1832. Mitchell's early MPs included the explorer and statesman
Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...
, 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 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...
, 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 The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century un ...
) in the Duke of Portland's second government.


Members of Parliament


1547–1629


1640–1832


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 Sir John Ernest Neale (7 December 1890 in Liverpool – 2 September 1975) was an English historian who specialised in Elizabethan and Parliamentary history. From 1927 to 1956, he was the Astor Professor of English History at University Coll ...
, ''The Elizabethan House of Commons'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949) *
T. H. B. Oldfield Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield (1755–1822) was an English political reformer, parliamentary historian and antiquary. His major work, ''The Representative History'', has been called "a domesday book of corruption". Life He was born in Derbyshire ...
, ''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) * *{{Rayment-hc, m, 3, date=March 2012 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1547 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1832 Parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall (historic) Rotten boroughs