West Looe (constituency)

West Looe, often spelt Westlow or alternative Westlowe, in Cornwall, England, was a rotten borough represented in the House of Commons of England from 1535 to 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It elected two Members of Parliament (MP) by the bloc vote system of election. It was disfranchised in the Reform Act 1832.

History West Looe was one of a number of Cornish boroughs enfranchised in the Tudor period, and like almost all of them it was a rotten borough from the start, with the size and importance of the community that comprised it quite inadequate to justify its representation. The borough consisted of the town of West Looe in Cornwall, connected by bridge across the River Looe to East Looe, which was also a parliamentary borough. From the reign of Edward VI, West Looe and East Looe were jointly a borough, returning two members of Parliament; however, under Queen Elizabeth the two towns were separated, and each thereafter returned two members except between 1654 and 1658, when they were once again represented jointly as East Looe and West Looe, by one member of the First and Second Protectorate Parliaments. At this early period, West Looe was sometimes alternatively referred to as Portby or Portpigham.

Franchise In 1660, the Commons had resolved that "the right of election is in the freemen and inhabitants paying scot and lot". But this determination proved to be ambiguous. It was presumably intended to secure the vote to the inhabitants whether or not they were freemen, but it was quickly re-interpreted as restricting the vote to those who were both freemen and residents. This arrangement was eventually formalised into a franchise held by the Mayor and members of the Corporation, providing they lived in the town. This corporation, which seems to have been set up for the purpose, consisted of 12 "capital burgesses" and an indefinite number of "free burgesses". The free burgesses were appointed by the corporation and tended to be few in number; furthermore, a small number of prominent local families provided the majority of both the corporation and the free burgesses. There were just 12 registered electors in 1816, and 19 in 1831.

In practice, this meant that the power to choose the MPs was in the hands of the local landowner or "proprietor", making West Looe (like East Looe) one of the most notorious of the rotten boroughs. For many years at the time of the Reform Act, West Looe had been controlled by the local gentry families of first the Trelawneys and later the Bullers of nearby MorvalPage 323, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition – London: St Martin's Press, 1957) (which also controlled East Looe and Saltash), and many members of the Buller family sat for the borough in the House of Commons; nevertheless, they generally assuaged local feelings by allowing other local families some influence over one of the two seats.

Elections Elections at West Looe were almost always uncontested. There was not one contest at a general election between 1700 and 1832, although a by-election in 1765 was fought out when an alliance of local families clearly felt they had enough sway on the corporation to challenge the Buller domination; the Buller candidate won.

Their uncontested nature did not guarantee that elections ran smoothly. West Looe waited only until its second Parliament to have its first controversial election, choosing Dr Alexander Nowell, a Prebendary of Westminster, as one of its members in the second Parliament of 1553. At this stage the eligibility or otherwise of clergy to sit in the Commons was not established, and a committee of six was appointed to consider the case on 12 October 1553. The following day it reported that, since his ecclesiastical rank entitled him to a vote in Convocation, he could not sit in the House of Commons. A writ to elect a new member in his place was ordered, though there is no record that such an election was ever made. Nowell's case became established precedent as to the eligibility of similar candidates in future places. (The situation was not finally clarified until clergy were declared ineligible by statute early in the 19th century.)

Nearly two centuries later, West Looe was again found to have elected an ineligible candidate when it chose Edward Trelawny in 1734, who was a Commissioner of Customs at the time.

Abolition In 1831, when commissioners were collecting the statistics on which the Reform Act was founded, West Looe had a population of 593 and 126 houses; the borough and town were coterminous, giving no scope for expanding the boundaries to save it from disfranchisement. The borough was abolished by the Reform Act 1832, its voters being absorbed into the new Eastern Cornwall county division, which had its place of election at Bodmin.

Members of Parliament

1553–1629 ParliamentFirst memberSecond memberFirst Parliament of 1553John AshleyWilliam MoriceSecond Parliament of 1553Dr Alexander NowellNowell was declared ineligible to sit by virtue of being a prebendary of Westminster. A writ to elect a new member in his place was ordered, though there is no record that such an election was ever made. (Porritt, pp 125–6).Ralph CliveParliament of 1554 Thomas Bond's Topographical and historical sketches of the boroughs of East and West Looe, in the county of Cornwall (1823) gives four names as elected to the second Parliament of 1553 – A. Nevel, R.Clere, W. Bendlus and R. Mounson – and none for 1554. Browne Willis renders the first two names as Alexander Nowell and Richard Cleu and lists them for West Looe . He also lists William Bendlowes as elected for Helston and Robert Mounson for "Dunheved" (correctly the alternative name for Launceston but here apparently indicating Newport). His list omits West Looe completely in 1554, but it may be that their appearance in Bond's list, albeit against the wrong date, indicates that Bendlowes and Mounson were the members.William Bendlowes (?)Robert Monson (?)Parliament of 1554–1555Clement HighamAmbrose GilbertParliament of 1555William St AubynJohn St ClairParliament of 1558Oliver BecketParliament of 1559John MoreHistory of Parliament, House of Commons 1558–1603Bond and Browne Willis both only give the same single name for 1559 William PoleParliament of 1563–1567John FowlerJohn YoungParliament of 1571Clement ThrockmortonJohn FineuxParliament of 1572–1581John AudleyWilliam HammondParliament of 1584–1585Thomas LancasterGeoffrey GatesParliament of 1586–1587Richard ChampernowneJohn HammondParliament of 1588–1589Matthew PattesonRobert SandersonParliament of 1593John ShelburyHugh BeestonParliament of 1597–1598Robert HitchamSir Henry LennardParliament of 1601John HareRichard VerneyParliament of 1604–1611Sir George Harvey,replaced after his death bySir William Wadehistoryofparliamentonline.org, West Looe (1604–1629).Sir Henry GoodyerAddled Parliament (1614)Sir Edward LewknorJohn HarrisParliament of 1621–1622 Heneage Finch Christopher HarrisHappy Parliament (1624–1625)George MynnJames BaggUseless Parliament (1625) John WolstenholmeEdward ThomasParliament of 1625–1626 John RudhaleParliament of 1628–1629John ParkerEdward ThomasNo Parliament summoned 1629–1640

1640–1832 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party April 1640 Anthony Mildmay George Potter November 1640 Henry Killigrew Royalist Thomas Arundell ParliamentarianJanuary 1644Killigrew disabled to sit – seat vacant1647 John Arundell November 1648Thomas Arundell died – seat left vacantDecember 1648John Arundell excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653West Looe was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament1654 John Blackmore East Looe and West Looe jointly elected a single member to the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate1656 John Buller January 1659 Dr William Petty William Whitelock May 1659Not represented in the restored Rump April 1660 John Buller John Kendall April 1661John Trelawny John NicholasNicholas was also elected for Wilton and Ripon. He chose to represent Ripon, and never sat for West LooeJune 1661 Sir Henry Vernon 1677 John Trelawny 1680 Jonathan Trelawny 1685 James Kendall Henry Trelawny 1689 Percy Kirke 1690 Edward Seymour Tory Jonathan Trelawny 1695 James Kendall John Mountstephen 1701 The Earl of RanelaghRanelagh was expelled from the Commons on 1 February 1703 when discrepancies were found in his accounts as Paymaster of the ArmyJuly 1702 Sidney Godolphin December 1702 Richard Hele 1703 Charles Seymour Henry Poley 1705Sir Charles Hedges Tory John Mountstephen 1707 Francis Palmes 1708 John Conyers 1710 Arthur Maynwaring April 1713 John Trelawny September 1713 Rear Admiral Sir Charles Wager 1715 Rear Admiral George Delaval Thomas Maynard 1722 Sir John Trelawny 1724 Edward Trelawny 1727 John Willes 1733 Thomas Walker 1734 Edward Trelawny1734: Edward Trelawny was a Commissioner of Customs at the time of election, which made him ineligible, and his election was void 1735 John Owen 1737 John Strange 1741 Benjamin Keene Admiral Sir Charles Wager Whig 1743 John Frederick 1747 William Noel 1757 William Trelawny 1761 Francis Buller 1765 John Sargent 1767 James Townsend Whig1768 William Graves 1774 Sir William James Charles Ogilvie 1775 John Rogers 1780 John Buller I 1782 John Cocks January 1784 John Buller I April 1784 John Scott John Lemon August 1784 James Adams 1790 Sir John de la Pole John Pardoe May 1796Sitwell Sitwell John Buller II November 1796 John Hookham Frere 1802 James Buller II Thomas Smith 1803 Quintin Dick 1805 Ralph Daniell 1806 James Buller II January 1812 Sir Joseph Yorke October 1812 Charles Buller I Whig Anthony Buller Whig 1816 Sir Charles Hulse Tory Hon. Henry Fitzgerald-de Ros Tory1818 Henry Goulburn Tory 1826 Charles Buller I Whig John Buller II Whig 1827 Sir Charles Hulse Tory1830 Charles Buller II Whig1831 Sir Anthony Buller Whig 1832 Constituency abolished Notes

Elections

Note: It is known that Townsend claimed 42 votes and that "the greater part" of these were declared invalid by the Returning Officer, but beyond the fact that his final total must have been lower than Sargent's the figure is not determinable

West Looe (constituency)

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