Ilchester

Ilchester was a venal borough, with an electorate described by Francis Fane in 1756 as ‘poor and corrupt, without honour, morals, or attachment to any man or party’.1Add. 32867, f. 474. The election of 1774 was declared void because of bribery, and John Harcourt was unseated in 1786 because of ‘gross and illegal’ malpractices by the returning officer. For most of this period its patron was Thomas Lockyer, but by 1774 his hold on the borough seems to have become less complete. John Robinson wrote in his survey for the general election of 1784:2Laprade, 75. ‘This borough is open, but notwithstanding the weight of interest is with the old Members’, i.e. the Lockyer candidates, who were in fact returned.

Lockyer died on 9 July 1785, and in his will instructed his executors to sell his property and invest the proceeds in Government stock. But it seems that Samuel Smith, his son-in-law, had succeeded to a good deal of Lockyer’s influence in the borough. There was also a rival interest managed by John Harcourt on behalf of Richard Troward, a London attorney, who had purchased property in Ilchester. At the by-election of 1785 Smith secured the return of his candidate, George Johnstone, on petition; and when Johnstone retired from Parliament, offered the seat to a friend of Lord Hawkesbury.3Add. 38220, f. 252. Towards the end of this period the situation at Ilchester became very confused, and it is not at all clear who had the chief interest in the borough.