Aug
1698
mitchell
Contested
GENERAL ELECTION
In the general election of Aug 1698, 27 people voted. There were 4 candidates, with John Povey & John Hawles elected.
Poll book data from:
Holding: Kresen Kernow
Citation: AR/10/18/36
Source: James Harris, ‘Partisanship and Popular Politics in a Cornish “Pocket” Borough, 1660–1714’, Parliamentary History, 37 (2018), 350–68.
Timeline & Key Statistics
Contexts & Remarks
- In 1698, four candidates progressed to the poll: two supporters of the court, Sir John Hawles and John Povey, stood against Sir Richard Blackham and Anthony Rowe, who were both Whigs.
- Prior to the election, Arundell continued to attempt to preserve his traditional franchise by colluding with the borough's returning officer, the portreeve. His agents approached the portreeve — Cornwall's leading Whig, Hugh Boscawen — and convinced him to continue with the old franchise by promising to rig the jury in favour of his nominated court-supporting candidates. On election day, Boscawen 'would not accept a noise which were not of the Jury', and his candidates were returned, with seven men who favoured the inhabitant-based franchise refusing to vote as part of the jury (Kresen Kernow, AR/3/55?6). Unlike the previous elections of the 1690s, a second poll survives among the Arundell papers based upon the Householder franchise, which shows that Rowe and Blackham had comfortably won the popular vote.
- This poll sheet was appended to a letter from John Stephens to George Bere (steward to Sir John Arundell) dated 6th August (Kresen Kernow, AR/10/18/36). In the letter, Stephens wryly observed that Blackham, a Turkey merchant, was 'a fitt Campanion for Mr. Rowe' as both had previously been found guilty of bribery. Those jurors who refused to vote and the eighteen other non-jury voters are grouped under the heading, 'The Mob'. Notes suggest that several of these voters did not pay scot and lot or were 'inmates' (i.e. lodged with others in the same dwelling).
- Rowe and Blackham unsuccessfully petitioned the House of Commons, along with a second petition from 'Several Inhabitants', which accused the portreeve of partiality.
Poll Book
Below is a digitised version of the poll book for this election:
