Meanwhile, at Grampound in Cornwall, although no official protest had been entered against the election result, proceedings had been taken under the criminal law and Lopes was convicted, fined £1000 and jailed for two years. As a result of the scandal, the already notoriously corrupt borough of Grampound was permanently deprived of its right to return MPs. Lopes' sentence was remitted in September 1820, and he put himself into Parliament at Westbury in a by-election in November. In 1829, the Duke of Wellington's Tory government decided to legislate for Catholic Emancipation, a policy which was heretical to their own Ultra-Tory supporters. The Home Secretary, Robert Peel, whose own Oxford University constituency was one of the greatest strongholds of opponents of Catholic Emancipation, felt compelled to resign and fight a by-election to receive a mandate for his change of policy, and was defeated. To allow Peel to return to the Commons in time to move the bill, Lopes vacated his own seat at Westbury and elected Peel in his place. This provoked considerable hostile comment, not least because the government had responded to the Anglican establishment voting against them by acquiring a seat from a Jewish-born borough owner. Lopes reportedly expected to be rewarded for providing his seat at so vital a moment with a peerage, but he was disappointed. Although Peel had no need of the seat after the general election which came the following year, Lopes did not stand again. Death Sir Manasseh died in 1831 aged 76. There is a memorial to him by Richard Westmacott in Bickleigh Church. Arms Lopes was granted a coat of arms blazoned Azure, a chevron or charged with three bars gemelles gules between three eagles rising of the second on a chief of the second five lozenges of the first. References Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Pt 1: From the beginnings to 1900. London: Oxford U. P., 1906 Brock, Michael (1973) The Great Reform Act. London: Hutchinson, 1973 Cannon, John (1973) Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Oldfield, T. H. B. (1816), The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy External links 1755 births 1831 deaths Lopes, Manasseh Masseh, 1st Baronet Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Barnstaple UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 High Sheriffs