always travelled with a servant mounted as an outrider, commanded lights, when, to my inexpressible surprise on witnessing the preparations, a long pole (stowed somewhere about the carriage in readiness for the purpose) was produced, at the top of which was affixed a large globular lantern, that on being lighted resembled a fire balloon and made a most extraordinary appearance. Mounted and carrying aloft pole and lantern, the outrider went before the coach to the end of our journey." The lantern, made of horn, is still preserved at Sydenham, one of the many objects of interest the old house contains.

The last of the Devonshire Tremaynes died a bachelor, aged seventy-three, at Sydenham, and was buried with his forefathers at Lamerton, 3 January, 1809. He left all his property to the Cornish branch of the Tremayne family, who now possess it.

BERE ALSTON AS A PARLIAMENTARY BOROUGH.

BY J. J. ALEXANDER, M.A.

(Read at Launceston, 28th July, 1909.)

I. INTRODUCTION.

IN the annals of any locality which is, or once was, a parliamentary constituency, some account of its elections and of the members who represented it may be regarded as an important element. The counties of Devon and Cornwall, which a hundred years ago contained thirty-five such constituencies, each returning two members, are exceptionally favoured in historical material of this nature.

With the publication in 1878 and 1880 of the two Blue Book Returns of Members of Parliament taken from official sources, and the production in more recent years of the voluminous Dictionary of National Biography, the task of preparing such an account for any given place has become a comparatively easy one. Practically the only difficulties which confront the compiler are to reconcile occasional discrepancies in the Blue Books, to incorporate local records, and to add references to local notabilities who have failed to secure a place in the national collection just mentioned.

Accounts of this kind have been furnished for Launceston and Newport (juxta Launceston) in Messrs. Peter's History of Launceston, and for Okehampton in Mr. Wright's History of Okehampton. In the Transactions, Vols. XIX, XXVIII, and XXXII, similar accounts are given by Mr. Brooking Rowe for Plympton, by Dr. Pearson for Ashburton, and by Mr. E. Windeatt for Totnes. A list for Tavistock, but without biographical notes, appears in the late Mr. R. N. Worth's Calendar of Tavistock Parish Records. The presidential address of Lord Coleridge in Vol. XXX supplies an attractive introduction to the whole subject.

Of the small towns in the western portion of Devon,

Lydford, a very ancient borough, once (in 1301) enjoyed the privilege of an election, when Johannes le Porter and Galfridus Pomeray were returned. The record of Bere Alston is a more extensive one, and may surprise many who have known the place only as a small mining and fruit - growing centre, lately raised to the dignity of a railway junction. Yet, strange as it may seem, this quiet little village possessed parliamentary powers for over two hundred years. As the election usually depended upon the will of a patron rather than upon the wishes of the inhabitants, it is desirable to give, in the first instance, a historical sketch of the patrons who controlled this borough.

The manor of Bere Ferrers, the parish in which the constituency was situated, was at the end of the fifteenth century in the possession of the Willoughbys, who inherited it by marriage from the Champernownes. On the death, in 1522, without heirs, of Robert Lord Willoughby de Broke, his lands were divided between his two daughters, Elizabeth, who married John Paulett, Marquis of Winchester, and Anne, who married Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy.1

2

Bere Alston first returned members in 1584 "at the request of William Marquis of Winchester and William Lord Mountjoy, Chief Lords of the Town and Borough.' Thus, at the very outset, and without concealment, was the patronage system recognized in this borough. The same two noblemen appear to have exercised the right of "" consent to the election of members for St. Ives in Cornwall. They were the son and grandson respectively of the coheiresses mentioned in the last paragraph.

On a division of the Broke property, the manor came to the share of the Blount family. William Lord Mountjoy was succeeded in 1594 by his brother Charles, known in history as the successful general who suppressed the Earl of Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland, for which achievement James I created him Earl of Devonshire. He left no lawful issue, but gave his lands to Mountjoy Blount, his natural son, whom Charles I created Earl of Newport (Isle of Wight). The latter sold the manor of Bere Ferrers, together with the borough of Bere Alston, to John Maynard, Serjeant-at-law. The date of the sale is not given.3

3 A plausible conjecture is 1646, the year in which Lord Newport was heavily fined by the Parliament.

There is not much to be said about the members returned under the patrons of the first dynasty; most of them probably supported the court party, the borough having been created with that object in view. They include two members each from the Blount, Strode, and Wise families, also some gentlemen apparently not connected with Devon, including that staunch royalist Sir Humphrey May, and Thomas Cheke, who married Essex Rich, daughter of Penelope Lady Rich, Mountjoy Blount's mother.

one.

Sir John Maynard, who held the lordship till his death in 1690, took an interest in the borough in more ways than He attempted, though without much success, to work the mines for silver,1 and he seems to have found the seat a convenient one to fall back upon when, as in 1660, he was not successful in his contests elsewhere. His son, Joseph Maynard, and a son-in-law, Sir Duncombe Colchester, each sat for the borough in one Parliament, and though Sir John is generally credited with strong Whig sympathies, a few prominent Tories, such as Arundell of Trerice and John Trevor, James II's Master of the Rolls, appear among his colleagues. Possibly this shrewd, calculating lawyer, who had no deep-seated devotion to principles nor desire for martyrdom, chose to conciliate both political parties; if one may judge from some of his contemporaries he was not universally respected by either.2 A more charitable view is that he generally left the electors free to select their own representatives. Trevor once, when speaking in the House (1689), stated that he owed his seat to the courtesy of Maynard and the gentlemen of the locality.

On Maynard's death his estate devolved upon his son Joseph's two daughters, of whom Elizabeth married Sir Henry Hobart, a grandson of John Hampden, and an ancestor of the Earls of Buckinghamshire, and Mary married Thomas Grey, second Earl of Stamford, son of the regicide Lord Grey of Groby. In the division of the property Bere Ferrers and Bere Alston passed to the Stamford family. The Earl, who became Lord Lieutenant of Devon in 1696, and was for some time President of the

1 Browne Willis (Not. Parl., Vol. II).

3

"Chandler's Debates (Pamphlet in Vol. V); Pepys; Rev. D. P. Alford, Trans. XXI, pp. 139-141.

3 D.N.B. Incorrectly given as Earl of Stafford in Trans. XXI, p. 141.

Board of Trade, is stated to have been an earnest but narrow-minded Whig who

66

Always voted at his party's call,

And never thought of thinking for himself at all."

In justice to this ardent politician it should be added that he did not derive much financial benefit from his political fidelity, and in an age of very general corruption he is said to have impoverished his estate by his devotion to public affairs. Though, under him, Bere Alston became a temporary shelter for Whig lawyers and placemen, the majority of its members during this period were men of high character and distinction.

At the notable trial of Sacheverell in 1710, Bere Alston was strongly represented. Lord Chancellor Cowper, who presided, was an ex-member; and among the managers of the prosecution were his brother Spencer Cowper and Sir Peter King, the then members, and three other exmembers, Attorney-General Montagu who led, Sir John Hawles, and John Smith, Chancellor of the Exchequer. At the subsequent general election many of the Whigs lost their seats through the popular feeling in Sacheverell's favour, and it is said that Spencer Cowper was among the victims.1 No record of any contest is to hand, but if the views of the patron were for the time set aside, it is certain that the new member, Lawrence Carter, must have belied the hopes of the Tories, as we find him subsequently in strong support of the Whig party, and even in 1716 engaged as prosecuting counsel against the Jacobite rebels of the previous year.

In the same year (1710) there passed away another exmember, Lord Chief Justice Holt, whose ability and integrity in judicial decisions went far to redeem the Bench from the stain which had been cast upon its reputation by the infamies of the notorious Jeffreys.

The Earl of Stamford died in 1720, and the Countess in 1722, and in default of issue the manor passed under Maynard's will to Sir John Hobart, the son of his elder granddaughter. At this time the control of the patron had become, by a House of Commons decision of 1721, to which reference will be made hereafter, more complete than formerly. Under the Hobart line the representation was apparently shared between the Hobart and Drake families, which latter had acquired large leasehold interests

1 D.N.B.