1818

Dates: Monday 22 June-Tuesday 23 June 1818.

Poll book reference: Kresen Kernow, J/1/2028.

It appears to have been the original poll sheet, titled: 'Borough of Grampond. The Poll taken at <the> Election of Two Burgesses to serve in parliament for the said Borough in the Guild Hall of the said Borough...'.

History of Parliament estimate that Grampound had an electorate of 69 in 1818, of which 56 voted (81 per cent turnout).

Sir Christopher Hawkins sold his interest in Grampound to Sir Manasseh Massah Lopes, 1st Bt, of Maristow House near Plymouth. Lopes then sent his agent to Grampound where he bribed 40 voters at £35 each (£1400 total), a lower price tag than that paid by Hawkins at £50 per person.

Candidates: John Innes (Tory); Alexander Robertson (Tory); John Teed (Independent); Ebenezer John Collett (Tory); Benjamin Shaw (Tory); and William Allen (Independent).

John Innes was involved trade in the East Indies, holding stock in the East India Company.

Alexander Robertson was a ship owner involved in trade with China.

John Teed was a merchant and ships agent from Devon who been a candidate for Grampound in 1808, and then supported the rival candidate in 1814 by-election. He stood in 1818 on his own interest.

Ebenezer John Collett, a hop merchant in Southwark, had been elected as Sir Christopher Hawkins's candidate in 1814.

Benjamin Shaw was a London merchant who stood on Manasseh Massah Lopes' interest.

William Allen was an elector who offered himself as a candidate.

During the polling, John Teed repeatedly called for the bribery oath to deter Lopes' bribed electors from voting. Allen also called for the bribery oath, but 'appearing to be not quite sober, it was objected that being intoxicated he could not be a candidate'. After a chaotic day of polling, the major adjourned. The following day, polling resumed. During a scrutiny, it was found that 33 of 36 voters who supported Innes and Robertson had been bribed by Lopes. An inhabitant of Grampound observed, 'We have had a more than ordinary proportion of murders, arsons and all sorts of horrors' (Tennyson Mss, Smedley to Tennyson, 20 Mar. 1819).

Innes and Robinson were elected for Grampound, though the result was challenged by Teed. In order to quash his petition, the newly elected MPs offered him £7,800, a bribe which was rejected. Teed was later the chief witness in the prosecution of Sir Manasseh Massah Lopes in 1819, which found Lopes and 23 other electors guilty of bribery. Despite this, the House of Commons rejected the petition; however, Grampound's history of bribery and corruption was such that Lord John Russell included the borough in his 1819 resolutions for borough reform. Grampound was eventually disfranchised on 30 May 1821.