Lostwithiel (UK Parliament constituency)

UK former constituency infobox
Name = Lostwithiel
Type = Borough
Year = 1304
Abolition = 1832
members = Two

Lostwithiel 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 1304 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

History

The borough consisted of the town of Lostwithiel and part of the neighbouring Lanlivery parish; it was a market town whose trade was mainly dependent on the copper mined nearby.

Unlike many of the most notorious Cornish rotten boroughs, Lostwithiel had been continuously represented since the Middle Ages and was originally of sufficient size to justify its status. However, by the time of the Great Reform Act it had long been a pocket borough, under the complete control of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe since 1702. The right to vote was vested in the corporation, who numbered 24 in 1816; they made no attempt to defy their patron, who regularly paid the corporation's debts and advanced them money.

In 1831, the borough had a population of 1,047, and 303 houses.

Members of Parliament

1304-1660

* 1553: John Courtenay
* 1597: William Cornwallis
* 1621-1622: George Chudleigh
* 1624-1625: John Hobart
* 1625: Sir George Chudleigh
* 1625: Sir Reginald Mohun

Long Parliament
* 1640-1644: Richard Arundell (Royalist) - "disabled to sit, January 1644"
* 1640-1643: John Trevanion (Royalist) - "died July 1643"
* 1645(?)-1648 Sir John Maynard - "not recorded as having sat after Pride's Purge, December 1648"
* 1645(?)-1648: Francis Holles - "excluded in Pride's Purge, December 1648"

"Lostwithiel was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate

Third Protectorate Parliament
* 1659: John Clayton
* 1659: Walter Moyle

"'Long Parliament (restored)
* 1659-1660: ?

1660-1832

Notes

References

*Robert Beatson, "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [http://books.google.com/books?vid=024wW9LmFc5kXY0FI2&id=Gh2wKY2rkDUC&printsec=toc&dq=Return+of+Members+of+Parliament&as_brr=1&sig=SK5GVtGLfWQ9ovZDbyZObAyIO5I#PPP9,M1]
*D Brunton & D H Pennington, "Members of the Long Parliament" (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
*Lewis Namier, "The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III" (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
*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