214 PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF TRURO. 



first Lord Chesterfield ; Ms colleague, Eoland Lytton, being an 

 ancestor of tlie Lyttons, of Knebworth, poets, novelists, and 

 statesmen. He possessed estates in the eastern part of the 

 county, and thus became associated with Truro ; he claimed 

 relationship to the Queen, by reason of his marriage with a St. 

 John, and was captain of the royal band of gentlemen pensioners . 

 Hannibal Vyvyan, of Trelowarren, one of the two Cornishmen 

 to whom reference has been made, was a notable man in local 

 affairs. He was governor of St. Mawes Castle from 1561 until 

 1603, but the duties of his ofiice did not prevent him from adding 

 to them the responsibilities of parliamentary life, for we find him 

 representing Helston in 1586 and in 1601, Truro in 1588, and 

 St. Mawes in 1596. He was also sheriff of the county in 1601, 

 and vice-admiral of the South coast of Cornwall. His 

 colleague in the representation of Truro, John Woulton, is 

 supposed to have been a relative of Woulton, bishop of Exeter 

 at that time. 



The parliament of 1588 was the last for which burgesses 

 were elected under the provisions of the older charters ; it was 

 dissolved 29th March, 1589, and on 20th June, of the same year 

 (1589), Elizabeth granted the town another, the seventh, charter, 

 under which the corporation continued to act, except for a short 

 interval in the reign of James II., imtil the passing of the 

 Beform Bills in 1832 and 1835. By the provisions of this charter 

 the right of election of members of parliament was vested in 

 the Corporation, consisting of twenty-four persons including the 

 mayor and four aldermen. Nearly four years elapsed before the 

 new corporate body was required to exercise its privilege in 

 sending members to parliament, and, unfortunately, all the 

 official returns relating to it have been lost, except the writ for a 

 single election at Morpeth ; two lists, however, were preserved at 

 the Crown Office, and they give as representing the town in this 

 (to Truro) historically important parliament, (35 Elizabeth, 

 1592-3) the names of John Parker and Nicholas Smyth. These 

 gentlemen were succeeded in October, 1597, by Sir Maurice 

 Barkeley, knight, and Eeade Stafford. Barkeley, having 

 married a Killigrew, doubtless owed his election to the influence 

 of that family ; in the previous year, he had been knighted by 

 the Earl of Essex at the taking of Cadiz. 



