Hereford

Hereford was an independent constituency, and preferred local men to strangers. The leading interest was in the Scudamore family, who held at least one seat throughout this period. Next came that of the Symons family. Others who had some interest were Lord Oxford, Lord Bateman, the Cornewalls of Moccas Court, and the Foleys.

In 1754 and 1761 there was an opposition to Charles Fitzroy Scudamore and John Symons from a ‘third man’—obviously there were independent electors who wished to prevent Hereford becoming a close borough. At the by-election of 1764 the first candidate in the field was John Drummond, supported by Thomas Harley, the bishop of Hereford, and Administration. An advertisement in the Glocester Journal, 2 Jan. 1764, denounced ‘this attempt to impose a Scot upon the capital of a cider county’, and Drummond was forced to withdraw. The candidates who went to the poll were both local men: John Scudamore, of a junior branch of the family; and Richard Cope Hopton, whose father had represented Hereford 1741-7.

From 1764 to 1768 the Scudamores held both seats. In 1768 Charles Fitzroy Scudamore was forced to withdraw, and from then until 1784 John Scudamore and Richard Symons represented the borough without serious opposition.

Charles Fitzroy Scudamore died in 1782, and his interest was inherited by his son-in-law Lord Surrey. At the general election of 1784 Surrey squeezed out Richard Symons. Surrey, who made his election for Carlisle, intended that James Walwyn should come in at Hereford. Walwyn, however, was sheriff for that year and thus ineligible to stand; and it was arranged that his brother-in-law Robert Phillipps should hold the seat for him. Surrey was accused of treating the city as if it were a pocket borough, and Phillipps was opposed by John Rodney, standing on the Harley interest. Rodney declined after polling for one day, and the Scudamore interest again held both seats.