Cornwall is a former county constituency covering the county of Cornwall, in the South West of England. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of England then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Knights of the Shire, elected by the bloc vote system.

Under the Reform Act 1832, it was divided between the constituencies of East Cornwall and West Cornwall.

The constituency consisted of the whole of the historic county of Cornwall, the most south-westerly county of England, occupying the part of the South West peninsula to the west of the River Tamar which divides the county from Devon. (Although Cornwall contained a number of parliamentary boroughs, each of which elected two MPs in their own right, these were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within a borough could confer a vote at the county election. For a summary of the boroughs represented before 1832 see Parliamentary representation from Cornwall.)

As in other county constituencies the franchise between 1430 and 1832 was defined by the Forty Shilling Freeholder Act, which gave the right to vote to every man who possessed freehold property within the county valued at £2 or more per year for the purposes of land tax; it was not necessary for the freeholder to occupy his land, nor even in later years to be resident in the county at all.

By the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, the population of Cornwall was about 300,000. Only a tiny fraction of these were entitled to vote. Sedgwick estimated there were about 2,300 electors in this constituency in the 1715–1754 period, and Namier and Brooke suggest this had increased to about 2,500 electors in the 1754–1790 period. At the vigorously contested election of 1790, when a high turnout can be assumed, 4,656 valid votes were cast (each voter being entitled to vote twice). At Cornwall's final election, in 1831, 5,350 votes were cast.

• Constituency created (1290)

1510–1629

As there were sometimes significant gaps between Parliaments held in this period, the dates of first assembly and dissolution are given. Where the name of the member has not yet been ascertained or (before 1558) is not recorded in a surviving document, the entry unknown is entered in the table.

The Roman numerals after some names are those used in The House of Commons 1509–1558 to distinguish a member from another politician of the same name.

In 1529 alternative versions are given of the names for one member. The first comes from the above book on the House of Commons. The second originates from another source.

More information Elected, Assembled ...

Elected	Assembled	Dissolved	First Member	Second Member
1510	21 January 1510	23 February 1510	unknown	unknown
1512	4 February 1512	4 March 1514	unknown	unknown
1515	5 February 1515	22 December 1515	Sir Peter Edgecombe	unknown
1523	15 April 1523	13 August 1523	unknown	unknown
1529	3 November 1529	14 April 1536	Sir Peter Edgecombe	Richard Grenville
1536	8 June 1536	18 July 1536	unknown	unknown
1539	28 April 1539	24 July 1540	Sir John Chamond	William Godolphin I
1542	16 January 1542	28 March 1544	Richard Edgcumbe	unknown
1545	23 November 1545	31 January 1547	Richard Chamond	John Beauchamp
1547	4 November 1547	15 April 1552	(Sir) Richard Edgecumbe	John Reskymer
1553	1 March 1553	31 March 1553	(Sir) William Godolphin I	Henry Chiverton
1553	5 October 1553	5 December 1553	John Carminowe	Richard Roscarrock
1554	2 April 1554	3 May 1554	Sir John Arundell
1554	12 November 1554	16 January 1555	? Thomas Trefry I	Henry Chiverton
1555	21 October 1555	9 December 1555	Richard Chamond
1558	20 January 1558	17 November 1558	John Arundell	John Polwhele
1559	23 January 1559	8 May 1559	John Trelawny	Richard Chamond
1562 or 1563	11 January 1563	2 January 1567	Peter Edgcumbe	John Trelawny died and repl. 1566 by Richard Chamond
1571	2 April 1571	29 May 1571	Richard Grenville	William Mohun
1572	8 May 1572	19 April 1583	Peter Edgcumbe to 1581 (Unknown from 1581)	Richard Chamond
1584	23 November 1584	14 September 1585	Richard Grenville	(Sir) William Mohun
1586	13 October 1586	23 March 1587	Peter Edgcumbe
1588	4 February 1589	29 March 1589		Sir Francis Godolphin
1593	18 February 1593	10 April 1593		William Bevil
1597	24 October 1597	9 February 1598	William Killigrew	Jonathan Trelawny
1601	27 October 1601	19 December 1601	Sir Walter Raleigh	John Arundell
1604	19 March 1604	9 February 1611	Sir Anthony Rous	Sir Jonathan Trelawny died 1604 Sir William Godolphin
1614	5 April 1614	7 June 1614	Richard Carew	John St Aubyn
1620 or 1621	16 January 1621	8 February 1622	Bevil Grenville	John Arundell
1623 or 1624	12 February 1624	27 March 1625		William Coryton
1625	17 May 1625	12 August 1625	Sir Robert Killigrew	Charles Trevanion
1626	6 February 1626	15 June 1626	Sir Francis Godolphin	William Coryton
1628	17 March 1628	10 March 1629	Sir John Eliot

Close

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

The bloc vote electoral system was used in two seat elections and first past the post for single member by-elections. Each elector had as many votes as there were seats to be filled. Votes had to be cast by a spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings, which were usually held at the county town. The expense and difficulty of voting at only one location in the county, together with the lack of a secret ballot contributed to the corruption and intimidation of electors, which was widespread in the unreformed British political system.

The expense, to candidates and their supporters, of contested elections encouraged the leading families of the county to agree on the candidates to be returned unopposed whenever possible. Contested county elections were therefore unusual.

There were no contested general election polls in Cornwall between 1710 and 1774. Leading Whig politicians, like Sir Robert Walpole, were happy to let Tory squires represent the county; to avoid them interfering with Whig plans in the county's numerous borough constituencies. The related families of Carew, Molesworth, St Aubyn and Buller monopolised the representation for much of the 18th century, until the partners in the Miners' Bank at Truro, Humphrey Mackworth Praed and William Lemon, became involved in elections in the 1770s.

Note on percentage change calculations: Where there was only one candidate of a party in successive elections, for the same number of seats, change is calculated on the party percentage vote. Where there was more than one candidate, in one or both successive elections for the same number of seats, then change is calculated on the individual percentage vote.

Note on sources: The information for the election results given below is taken from Sedgwick 1715–1754, Namier and Brooke 1754–1790 and Stooks Smith 1790–1832.

• List of former United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
• Unreformed House of Commons
• Parliamentary representation from Cornwall