Callington (UK Parliament constituency)

Callington 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 1585 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.

Callington
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1585–1832
Seats	Two
Replaced by	East Cornwall

History

The borough consisted of most of the town of Callington in the East of Cornwall. Callington was the last of the Cornish rotten boroughs to be enfranchised, returning its first members in 1585; like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start, and was never substantial enough to have a mayor and corporation.

The right to vote in Callington was disputed until a decision of the House of Commons in 1821 settled it as resting with "freeholders of the borough and ... life-tenants of freeholders, resident for 40 days before the election and rated to the poor at 40 shillings or more". This considerably enlarged the electorate, for there had been only 42 voters in the borough in 1816, but the Parliamentary return of 1831 reported that 225 were qualified. In the 18th century the power of the "patron" to influence the voters in Callington was considered absolute. In 1831 the borough had a population of 1,082, and 225 houses; the part of the town outside the borough boundaries contained only a further eight houses, leaving no scope to enlarge it. It was disfranchised by the Great Reform Act in 1832.

Patrons of pocket borough

The two patrons of the pocket borough of Callington were the Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon (a junior branch of the Rolle family of Stevenstone and Bicton in Devon) and the Coryton family of the adjacent manor of St. Mellion, Cornwall.^[1]

Rolle patronage

In 1601 Robert Rolle (died 1633) of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon (a grandson of George Rolle (d.1552) of Stevenstone, founder of the Rolle family in Devon), purchased the manor of Callington in Cornwall, thereby gaining the pocket borough seat of Callington in Parliament,^[2] which in future served to promote the careers of many Rolles and descendants of that family. He nominated to this seat his first cousin once-removed^[3] John Rolle (born 1563)^[4] in 1601, his brother William Rolle (died 1652) in 1604 and 1614, his son Sir Henry Rolle (1589–1656), of Shapwick, in 1620 and 1624, his son Samuel's father-in-law Thomas Wise (died March 1641) of Sydenham in Devon, in 1625, and another son John Rolle (1598–1648), in 1626 and 1628.^[5] The manor and borough were later inherited by the Rolle heiress Margaret Rolle (1709-1765), suo jure 15th Baroness Clinton, wife of Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford^[6] whose son and heir George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford (d.1791) died without progeny. It then passed by inheritance to her cousin George William Trefusis, of Trefusis in Cornwall.^[7] Robert George William Trefusis (1764–1797) successfully claimed the title (17th) Baron Clinton in 1794.^[8] By 1816 it had passed to Robert Cotton St John Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton but was no longer as secure as it had been, so that the Coryton family was sufficiently influential to challenge his power on occasion.

Members of Parliament

1585–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
Parliament of 1584–1585	Thomas Lawton	Thomas Harris
Parliament of 1586–1587	Edward Aylworth	William Herle
Parliament of 1588–1589	Robert Worsley	Henry Golding
Parliament of 1593	Robert Carey	Carew Reynell
Parliament of 1597–1598	Henry Ferrers	John Egerton
Parliament of 1601	Miles Raynesford	John Rolle
Parliament of 1604–1611	Sir Roger Wilbraham	Sir William Rolle
Addled Parliament (1614)	Humphrey Were
Parliament of 1621–1622	Lord Wriothesley	Henry Rolle[9]
Happy Parliament (1624–1625)	Sir Edward Seymour
Useless Parliament (1625)	Sir Richard Weston	Thomas Wise
Parliament of 1625–1626	Sir Clipseus Carew	John Rolle
Parliament of 1628–1629	Sir William Constable[10]
No Parliament summoned 1629–1640

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Sir Samuel Rolle	Parliamentarian		Thomas Gardiner	Royalist
November 1640		Sir Arthur Ingram	Parliamentarian		Hon. George Fane	Royalist
August 1642	Ingram died August 1642 - seat vacant
January 1643				Fane disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1646		Lord Clinton			Thomas Dacres
December 1648	Clinton and Dacres excluded in Pride's Purge - both seats vacant
1653	Callington was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Thomas Carew			Anthony Buller
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Robert Rolle			Edward Herle
June 1660					John Coryton
July 1660		Sir Hugh Pollard
May 1661		Allen Brodrick			Sir Cyril Wyche
June 1661		Sir Henry Bennet
1665		Samuel Rolle
February 1679					John Coryton
October 1679		Richard Carew			William Trevisa
1681					William Coryton
1685		Sir John Coryton
1689					Jonathan Prideaux
February 1690					Francis Fulford
October 1690		Jonathan Prideaux
1695		Sir William Coryton			Francis Gwyn
1698					Francis Fulford
January 1701					Robert Rolle
December 1701		Samuel Rolle
1702					John Acland
1703					Sir William Coryton
1712					Henry Manaton
1713					Sir John Coryton
1719		Thomas Coplestone	Whig
1722					Thomas Lutwyche
1727					Sir John Coryton
1734					Isaac le Heup
1741					Hon. Horatio Walpole	Whig
1748		Edward Bacon
1754		Hon. Sewallis Shirley			John Sharpe
1756					Fane William Sharpe
1761		Richard Stevens
1768		Thomas Worsley
1771					William Skrine
1774		John Dyke Acland
1778		George Stratton[11]
1780					John Morshead
1784		Sir John Call			Paul Orchard
1801		John Inglett-Fortescue
1803		Ambrose St John[12]
1806		William Wickham			William Garrow	Whig
1807		Lord Binning[13]	Tory		Thomas Carter
1810					William Stephen Poyntz	Whig
1812		Sir John Leman Rogers
1813		Hon. Charles Trefusis	Tory
1818		Hon. Edward Pyndar Lygon	Tory		Sir Christopher Robinson	Tory
1820[14]		Matthias Attwood	Whig		William Thompson	Whig
1826					Alexander Baring	Whig
1830		Bingham Baring	Whig
1831		Henry Bingham Baring	Tory		Hon. Edward Herbert[15]	Tory
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. Hunneyball, Paul, "Callington Borough", published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
2. Hunneyball, Paul, "Callington Borough", published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
3. He was a younger son of John I Rolle of Stevenstone (d.1570), eldest son of the patriarch George Rolle (d.1552), per Vivian, pp.652-3
4. listed in WP article Callington (UK Parliament constituency), and (without date of birth) in History of Parliament overview of constituency
5. Hunneyball, Paul, "Callington Borough", with his relationship to Thomas Wise corrected, per Vivian, 1895, pp.654,791
6. Page 145 Note 2, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
7. Lysons, Daniel & Lysons, Samuel, Magna Britannia, Vol.6, Devonshire, London, 1822, p.387
8. P. W. Montague-Smith, Debrett's Peerage (1968), p.265 & see Baron Clinton
9. Maija Jansson in Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons)
10. Constable was also elected for Scarborough, and probably never sat for Callington
11. Stratton's election in 1778 was declared void, but he won the 1779 by-election that resulted
12. This Ambrose St John was clearly NOT Ambrose St John (1815-1875)
13. The Earls of Haddington were referred to as "Lord Binning", before succeeding their fathers. Thomas Hamilton became the 9th Earl in 1828.
14. Robinson and Lygon were initially declared re-elected in 1820, defeating Attwood and Thompson, but the result was reversed on petition
15. "Herbert, Hon. Edward Charles Hugh (1802-1852), of Tetton, Som". historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 26 October 2017.

References

• Cornwall portal

• 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)
• Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 1.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 1)