# St Germans (UK Parliament constituency)

St Germans was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1562 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

## History

The borough consisted of part of St Germans parish in South-East Cornwall, a coastal town too small to have a mayor and corporation, where the chief economic activity was fishing. Like most of the Cornish boroughs enfranchised or re-enfranchised during the Tudor period, it was a rotten borough from the start.
The right to vote rested in theory with all (adult male) householders, but in practice only a handful (who called themselves freemen) exercised the right; there were only seven voters in 1831. The Eliot family had exercised complete control over the choice of MPs for many years, as was also true at nearby Liskeard.
In 1831, the borough had a population of 672, and 99 houses. The boundaries excluded part of the town, which consisted of 124 houses in total, but this was still far too small to justify its retaining its representation, and St Germans was disfranchised by the Reform Act in 1832. The decision, however, was controversial: the whole parish (of which the town made up only a fraction) had a population in the 1821 census of 2,404, and the initial proposal was that St Germans should lose only one of its two MPs. But the borough covered only 40 acres (160,000 m$^2$), and the town 50, in a parish of more than 9,000 acres (36 km$^2$). The Whig government decided that the availability in a surrounding parish of sufficient population should not save a borough from disfranchisement, unless a substantial part of that population was already within the borough boundaries. The bill's schedules were amended so as to extinguish both of the St Germans MPs, saving instead the second MP at Penryn (where the boundaries had been extended to take in the neighbouring town of Falmouth). The Tory opposition attacked the decision as politically motivated (St Germans was a Tory borough), and the vote in the Commons was one of the narrowest in the entire reform bill debates.

## Members of Parliament
### MPs 1563–1629

| Parliament | First member | Second member |
| Parliament of 1563–1567 | William Mohun | William Hyde |
| Parliament of 1571 | Charles Glemham | Thomas Cosgrave |
| Parliament of 1572–1581 | Thomas Ayshe | Richard Eliot |
| Parliament of 1584–1585 | George Carew | Henry Denny |
| Parliament of 1586–1587 | Thomas Bodley | Edward Barker |
| Parliament of 1588–1589 | William Barrington | William Langham |
| Parliament of 1593 | Sampson Lennard | John Glanville |
| Parliament of 1597–1598 | Robert Hatchman | John Chamberlain |
| Parliament of 1601 | (Sir) George Carew | John Osborne |
| Parliament of 1604–1611 | (Sir) George Carew | John Trott |
| Addled Parliament (1614) | Sir John Eliot | John Trott |
| Parliament of 1621–1622 | Richard Tisdale | Sir Richard Buller |
| Happy Parliament (1624–1625) | (Sir) John Coke | Sir John Stradling |
| Useless Parliament (1625) | (Sir) John Coke | Sir Henry Marten |
| Parliament of 1625–1626 | Sir John Eliot | Sir Henry Marten |
| Parliament of 1628–1629 | Thomas Cotton | Benjamin Valentine |
| No Parliament summoned 1629–1640 |||

### MPs 1640–1832

| Year | | First member | First party | | Second member | Second party |
| April 1640 | | William Scawen | | | John Eliot | |
| November 1640 | | Benjamin Valentine | Parliamentarian | | John Moyle | Parliamentarian |
| December 1648 | | Benjamin Valentine | Parliamentarian | Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant | Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant | Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant |
| 1652 | Valentine died 1652 – seat vacant | Valentine died 1652 – seat vacant | Valentine died 1652 – seat vacant | | | Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant | Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant | Moyle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant |
| 1653 | St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | St Germans was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate |
| January 1659 | | John Glanville | | | John St Aubyn | |
| May 1659 | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump |
| 1660 | | John Eliot | | | Richard Knightley | |
| 1661 | | John Eliot | | | Edward Eliot | |
| 1679 | | Daniel Eliot | | | Richard Eliot | |
| 1685 | | Daniel Eliot | | | Sir Thomas Higgons | |
| 1689 | | Daniel Eliot | | | Sir Walter Moyle | |
| 1690 | | Daniel Eliot | | | Henry Fleming | |
| 1698 | | Daniel Eliot | | | John Tanner | |
| 1700 | | Daniel Eliot | | | Henry Fleming | |
| January 1701 | | John Speccot | | | Henry Fleming | |
| April 1701 | | Daniel Eliot | | | Henry Fleming | |
| December 1701 | | Richard Edgcumbe | Whig | | Henry Fleming | |
| 1702 | | John Anstis | | | Henry Fleming | |
| May 1705 | | Samuel Rolle | | | Henry Fleming | |
| December 1705 | | Edward Eliot | | | Henry Fleming | |
| 1708 | | Edward Eliot | | | Francis Scobell | |
| 1710 | | Edward Eliot | | | John Knight | Whig |
| January 1715 | | Waller Bacon | | | John Knight | Whig |
| May 1715 | | Lord Stanhope | Whig | | John Knight | Whig |
| 1722 | | Lord Binning | | | Philip Cavendish | |
| 1727 | | Sir Gilbert Heathcote | Whig | | Sidney Godolphin | |
| January 1733 | | Sir Gilbert Heathcote | Whig | | Richard Eliot | |
| March 1733 | | Dudley Ryder | | | Richard Eliot | |
| 1734 | | The Lord Baltimore | | | Charles Montagu | |
| 1741 | | John Hynde Cotton | | | James Newsham | |
| 1747 | | Richard Eliot | | | Thomas Potter | |
| 1748 | | Edward Eliot | Whig | | Thomas Potter | |
| 1754 | | Edward Eliot | Whig | | Anthony Champion | |
| 1761 | | Edward Eliot | Whig | | Philip Stanhope | |
| 1765 | | Edward Eliot | Whig | | William Hussey | |
| March 1768 | | Edward Eliot | Whig | | Samuel Salt | |
| December 1768 | | George Jennings | | | Benjamin Langlois | |
| 1774 | | Edward Eliot | Whig | | Benjamin Langlois | |
| 1775 | | John Pownall | | | Benjamin Langlois | |
| 1776 | | John Peachey | | | Benjamin Langlois | |
| 1780 | | Edward James Eliot | | | Dudley Long | Whig |
| 1784 | | John Hamilton | Tory | | Abel Smith | |
| 1788 | | John Hamilton | Tory | | Samuel Smith | |
| February 1790 | | Sir Charles Hamilton | | | Samuel Smith | |
| June 1790 | | The Marquess of Lorne | Whig | | Hon. Edward James Eliot | |
| 1791 | | The Marquess of Lorne | Whig | | Hon. William Eliot | Tory |
| 1796 | | Lord Grey | Whig | | Hon. William Eliot | Tory |
| 1802 | | Lord Binning | Tory | | James Langham | |
| 1806 | | Sir Joseph Yorke | Tory | | Matthew Montagu | Tory |
| 1810 | | Charles Philip Yorke | Tory | | Matthew Montagu | Tory |
| 1812 | | William Henry Pringle | Tory | | Henry Goulburn | Tory |
| 1818 | | Hon. Seymour Thomas Bathurst | Tory | | Charles Arbuthnot | Tory |
| 1826 | | Charles Ross | Tory | | Charles Arbuthnot | Tory |
| 1827 | | Charles Ross | Tory | | James Loch | Whig |
| July 1830 | | Charles Ross | Tory | | Sir Henry Hardinge | Tory |
| December 1830 | | Charles Ross | Tory | | Winthrop Mackworth Praed | Tory |
| 1832 | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished |