Oct
1695
mitchell
Contested
GENERAL ELECTION
In the general election of Oct 1695, 15 people voted. There were 4 candidates, with Humphrey Courtney & Thomas Vivian elected.
Poll book data from:
Holding: Kresen Kernow
Citation: WH/1/5192, f. 16r
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 1695, four candidates proceeded to a poll that ended in a double return: Humphrey Courtney, Thomas Vivian, Anthony Rowe, and Thomas Dodson. All were Cornish Tories except for the London-based Whig, Rowe, who had supported William of Orange in 1688. Almost a year before the election, Rowe gave several bullocks to the town, and distributed beef among the inhabitants closer to the poll.
- Although a poll was taken in accordance with the Householder franchise that had been established by the House of Commons in 1689, it does not survive. This poll sheet was taken by the agents of the Arundell family, who continued to attempt to operate the old franchise based on the votes of a jury — although nine jurors who supported the wider franchise refused to vote. Arundell's agent affixed indentures to the election writ based on these votes, and Rowe countered by attaching his own indentures to the writ in London, hence the double return. A protracted and fiercely partisan series of debates in the Commons saw Courtney and Vivian emerge victorious.
- The poll appears within a volume of poll sheets and manor court presentments for the borough of Mitchell, which forms part of the surviving papers of Whitford and Sons, solicitors.
Poll Book
Below is a digitised version of the poll book for this election:
