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 A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or Electoral district, constituency in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, or the United Kin ...
consisting of the town (or village) of Mitchell, Cornwall. From the first Parliament of
Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...
, in 1547, it elected two members to the
unreformed House of Commons The "unreformed House of Commons" is a name given to the House of Commons of Great Britain (after 1800 the House of Commons of the United Kingdom) before it was reformed by the Reform Act 1832, the Irish Reform Act 1832, and the Scottish Reform ...
.


History

The borough encompassed parts of two parishes,
Newlyn East St Newlyn East () 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 according to an anon ...
and
St Enoder St Enoder () is a civil parish and hamlet in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The hamlet is situated five miles (8 km) southeast of Newquay. There is an electoral ward bearing this name which includes St Columb Road. The population at t ...
. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the
Tudor period In England and Wales, the Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603, including the Elizabethan era during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England, which began with ...
, 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
portreeve A portreeve (, sometimes spelt Port-reeve) or port warden is the title of a historical official in England and Wales possessing authority (political, administrative, or fiscal) over a town. The details of the office have fluctuated and evolved co ...
s, and lords of the manor, who are capable of being portreeves, and the inhabitants of the said borough paying
scot and lot Scot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English, Welsh and Irish medieval boroughs, referring to local rights and obligations. The term ''scot'' comes from the Old English word '' sceat'', an ordinary coin in Anglo-Saxon times, eq ...
"'': 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 Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier (; 27 June 1888 – 19 August 1960) was a British historian of Polish-Jewish background. His best-known works were ''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' (1929), ''England in the Age of the Ameri ...
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 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 Hawki ...
, 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 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the Reform Act 1832, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 45), enacted by the Whig government of Pri ...
. 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 rebell ...
, 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 Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...
, 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 Dublin Castle administration, administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretar ...
) 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 – 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 College London. Acad ...
, ''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) * *{{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