1807

Date: Monday 11 May 1807.

Poll book reference: Kresen Kernow, CF/1/4554/1-2.

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 at the Town Hall of the said Borough...'.

The corporation's prevailing interest for the constituency remained with the patronage of Sir Christopher Hawkins, though a splinter group of freemen led by Thomas Croggan and James Cook had their election agents nominate rival candidates.

Candidates: Hon. Andrew James Cochrane Johnstone (Independent Radical); Hon. George Augustus Frederick Cochrane (Independent Radical); Robert Williams III (Tory); and Henry Baring (Tory).

Freemen Croggan and Cook invited the radical, Sir Francis Burdett, to stand for Grampound, though he declined, suggesting brothers Johnstone and Cochrane. Hon. Andrew James Cochrane Johnstone served in the military in India and the West Indies, and been Governor of Dominica from 1797 to 1803. He ran in harness with his brother, Hon. George Augustus Frederick Cochrane. They were supported financially by their brother, Hon. Basil Cochrane, a nabob merchant, and spent £400 treating freemen at the King's Head public house.

Robert Williams III was a banker and London alderman who supported the Pittite government. Having stood as MP for Wootton Bassett from 1802 to 1807, Sir Christopher Hawkins offered him a seat at Grampound for £4,000. He ran in harness with Henry Baring, a notable gambler and member of the Baring banking family.

The election returned Johnstone and Cochrane, who celebrated the election as a victory of the freemen over the interests of the corporation and Sir Christopher Hawkins. Baring and Williams petitioned, arguing that Cochrane and Johnstone did not fulfill the property qualification. In support of his candidates' petition, Sir Christopher Hawkins reduced the number of freemen and increased the number of burgesses in the constituency to retain his influence. Johnstone threatened legal action against Hawkins to hold him accountable for this electoral interference. The petition was heard in March 1808 and the election result was declared void.