Northamptonshire

<p>Northamptonshire was free from aristocratic control and its representation was securely in the hands of the country gentlemen. No election went to the poll during this period and expenses were small: Sir Edmund Isham in 1768 paid just over £180, most of which went in drink for the freeholders.<a class='fnlink' id='t1' href='#fn1'>1<span>Election accounts, Isham mss, Northants. RO.</span></a> Until 1784 political issues played little part in elections.</p><p>In 1784 there was opposition to the re-election of Thomas Powys who, though he had opposed the Fox-North Coalition, had spoken against parliamentary reform and taken a leading part against Pitt’s Administration; and Sir James Langham, a supporter of Pitt, came forward as a candidate. ‘Powys is very unpopular’, wrote Lord Spencer to his mother on 6 Apr. 1784,<a class='fnlink' id='t2' href='#fn2'>2<span>Spencer mss.</span></a> ‘and does not exert himself, because he waits to explain his conduct at the meeting today.’ At the county meeting Lucy Knightley stood down in favour of Langham, and explained his retirement on grounds of health. Powys defended his parliamentary conduct, and some debate took place between him and Sir William Dolben on the constitutional implications of Pitt’s accession to power; but in the end Powys and Langham were returned unopposed.<a class='fnlink' id='t3' href='#fn3'>3<span>Forrester, 86-88.</span></a></p>