| Saltash | |
|---|---|
| Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
| County | Cornwall |
| Major settlements | Saltash |
| 1552–1832 | |
| Seats | Two |
| Replaced by | East Cornwall |
Saltash, sometimes called Essa, 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 1552 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
History
The borough consisted of the town of Saltash, a market town facing Plymouth and Devonport across the Tamar estuary, and the inhabitants by 1831 were mainly fishermen or Devonport dockworkers. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start.
Saltash was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote rested with the tenants of certain specified properties. For a long period in the 18th century, there was a contest for control of the borough between the government and the Buller family of Morval, depending partly on legal uncertainties over the precise number and identity of the burgage properties to which votes were attached. In the 1760s it was considered an entirely secure Admiralty borough, where the naval influence could sway all the voters,[1] but by 1831 the Bullers owned all the tenancies and considered themselves the patrons.
In 1831, the borough had a population of 1,637, and 245 houses.
Members of Parliament
MPs 1547–1629
| Parliament | First member | Second member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parliament of 1547 | Christopher Smith | Henry Fisher[2] | |
| Parliament of 1553 (Mar) | George Kekewich | Edward Saunders | |
| Parliament of 1553 (Oct) | Richard Weston | Thomas Martin | |
| Parliament of 1554 (Apr) | Peter St Hill | Humphrey Cavell | |
| Parliament of 1554 (Nov) | Oliver Debett | Humphrey Cavell | |
| Parliament of 1555 | Alexander Nowell | Nicholas St John (?) | |
| Parliament of 1558 | Thomas Williams | Francis Yaxley | |
| Parliament of 1559 | Richard Reynell | Richard Forsett | |
| Parliament of 1562 | Thomas Carew | James Dalton | |
| By-election 1566 | Henry Killagrew | ||
| Parliament of 1571 | William Page | ||
| Parliament of 1572-1581 | |||
| Parliament of 1584 | Richard Carew | Dr William Clerk | |
| Parliament of 1586-1587 | George Carew | John Acland | |
| Parliament of 1588-1589 | Arthur Gorge | ||
| Parliament of 1593 | Jerome Horsey | ||
| Parliament of 1597-1598 | Gregory Downhall | Ellis Wynn | |
| Parliament of 1601 | Sir Robert Cross | Alexander Nevill | |
| Parliament of 1604-1611 | Sir Peter Manwood | Thomas Wyvell | |
| Addled Parliament (1614) | Ranulph Crewe | Sir Robert Phelips | |
| Parliament of 1621-1622 | Sir Thomas Trevor | Sir Thomas Smith | |
| Happy Parliament (1624-1625) | Francis Buller | ||
| Useless Parliament (1625) | Sir Richard Buller | ||
| Parliament of 1625-1626 | Sir John Hayward | ||
| Parliament of 1628-1629 | Sir Francis Cottington | ||
| No Parliament summoned 1629-1640 | |||
MPs 1640–1832
References
- ↑ Page 302, Lewis Namier, "The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III" (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
- ↑ "SMITH, Christopher (By 1510-89), of London and Annables, Herts. | History of Parliament Online".
Sources
- 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 "S" (part 2)