Yarmouth I.o.W.

During the first ten years of this period Yarmouth was controlled by Thomas Holmes (created in 1760 Baron Holmes in the Irish peerage), and managed by him on behalf of Government. There was an anti-Holmes party in the Isle of Wight, headed by Sir Thomas Worsley and Lord Carnarvon; and when Holmes died in July 1764 they hoped to take over from him. But the appointment of governor of the Isle of Wight was given to Hans Stanley, who was committed to neither side. Stanley wrote shortly after his appointment:1To Hans Sloane, 6 Aug. 1764, Sloane-Stanley mss.

I think I see very clearly that the governor of the Isle of Wight in elections is but a secondhand interest; either party will be glad to make some sort of terms with him in order to procure favours for their friends, and perhaps it would not have been ill policy to adopt the Irish maxim of joining with the strongest after they had first settled that point amongst themselves.

At Yarmouth after Holmes’s death there was a division of interests between the Rev. Leonard Troughear Holmes, Lord Holmes’s nephew and successor, and Lord Holmes’s brother-in-law, Barnabas Eveleigh Leigh; but this was soon composed by each agreeing to return one Member.2Northington to Grenville, 14 Oct. 1764, Grenville mss (JM); Grenville to Northington, 17 Oct. 1764, Grenville letter bk. Holmes then offered his interest in the Isle of Wight to Administration, and Stanley advised Grenville to accept.3Grenville to Holmes, 12 Sept. 1764, Grenville letter bk.; Stanley to Grenville, 9 Dec. 1764, Grenville mss (JM).

Holmes worked with each successive Administration, and at the general election of 1768 he had Government support in the attack made upon him by the Worsley-Oglander-Jervoise Clarke party in all three Isles of Wight constituencies. At Yarmouth Holmes’s candidates were defeated, but returned on petition; and before the general election of 1774 Holmes and Jervoise Clarke came to an agreement to return one Member each.