Fowey was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1571 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
History The borough consisted of the town of Fowey, a seaport and market town, and the neighbouring hamlet of Mixtow. Unlike many of the most notorious Cornish rotten boroughs which were enfranchised in Tudor times, Fowey had once been a town of reasonable size, and returned members to a national council in 1340, although it had to wait until 1571 for representation in Parliament.
Fowey was a feudal tenure of the Prince of Wales, and by a judgment of 1701 the right to vote was held to rest with "the Prince's tenants",Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland, 1816, Volume 3, page 206, quoted on page 316 note 1, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition – London: St Martin's Press, 1957) which in practice was interpreted to include all the householders paying scot and lot; there were 331 voters in 1831. However, most of the property in the borough was owned by the Rashleigh family of nearby Menabilly, and in 1816 they and the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe shared the "patronage", each having considerable influence if not quite absolute power to choose one of the MPs.
In 1831, the borough had a population of 1,600, and 340 houses.
Members of Parliament
1571–1629 ParliamentFirst memberSecond memberParliament of 1571Robert PetreThomas CromwellParliament of 1572–1583William RussellEdward HarringtonParliament of 1584–1585Reginald MohunWilliam TreffryParliament of 1586–1587John BonythonParliament of 1588–1589John RashleighArthur AtyeParliament of 1593William KilligrewSamuel LennardParliament of 1597–1598John RashleighThomas TreffryParliament of 1601Carew RaleighSir William Courtney, juniorParliament of 1604–1611Henry PeterFrancis VyvyanAddled Parliament (1614)Jonathan RashleighSir Edward BoysParliament of 1621–1622John TreffryHappy Parliament (1624–1625)William NoySir Robert CokeUseless Parliament (1625)Jonathan RashleighArthur BassetParliament of 1625–1626William MurrayParliament of 1628–1629Robert RashleighSir Richard GrenvilleNo Parliament summoned 1629–1640
1640–1832
YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640 Jonathan Rashleigh RoyalistEdwin RichNovember 1640 Sir Richard BullerParliamentarianNovember 1642Buller died – seat vacantJanuary 1644Rashleigh disabled from sitting – seat vacant1646Nicholas GouldGregory ClementMay 1652Clement expelledClement was expelled from the house for immorality (for "lying with his maid" according to the wording of the motion) – seat vacant1653Fowey was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659John BartonEdward HerleMay 1659 Nicholas GouldOne seat vacantApril 1660 John Barton Edward Herle 1661 Jonathan Rashleigh John Rashleigh 1675 Jonathan Rashleigh 1679 John Treffry 1685 Bevil Granville 1689 Jonathan Rashleigh Shadrach Vincent 1695 Thomas Vivian Sir Bevil Granville January 1701 John Williams John Granville December 1701 John Hicks 1702 George Granville Tory 1708 Henry Vincent (junior) 1710 Viscount Dupplin Tory 1712 Bernard Granville 1713 Jermyn Wyche Tory 1715 Jonathan Elford Tory 1719 Nicholas Vincent 1722 John Goodall Tory 1725 William Bromley ToryJanuary 1727 The Viscount FitzWilliam WhigAugust 1727 Jonathan Rashleigh Tory 1734 John Hedges 1737 William Wardour 1746 Captain the Hon. George Edgcumbe Whig 1761 Hon. Robert Boyle-Walsingham 1765 Philip Rashleigh Tory 1768 James Modyford Heywood 1774 The Lord Shuldham Whig 1784 John Grant Tory 1786 Hon. Richard EdgcumbeStyled Viscount Valletort from August 1789 Tory 1795 Sylvester Douglas Tory 1796 Reginald Pole-Carew Tory 1799 Edward GoldingIn 1802 Golding was also elected for Plympton Erle, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Fowey ToryJuly 1802 Reginald Pole Carew ToryDecember 1802 Robert Wigram (senior) Tory 1806 Robert Wigram (junior) Tory 1812 William Rashleigh Tory 1818 George Lucy Tory Hon. James Hamilton Stanhope 5 March 1819At the 1818 election Lucy and Stanhope were declared to have defeated Viscount Valletort and Alexander Glynn Campbell, but on petition the result was reversed. However, Valletort had died in the interim and a by-election was held to fill his seat Seat vacant (death of Viscount Valletort) Alexander Glynn Campbell Tory24 March 1819 Matthias AttwoodAttwood was initially declared to have defeated Valletort at the by-election, but the result was reversed on petition ToryMay 1819 Viscount Valletort Tory 1820 George Lucy Tory 1826 Hon. Robert Henley ToryFebruary 1830 Lord Brudenell ToryJuly 1830 John Cheesment Severn Tory1832 Constituency abolished
Notes
References
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) 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 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)