Right of election

in the freeholders

Background Information

Number of voters: 154 in 17341Trans. Devon. Assoc. xliii. 379.

Constituency business
County
Date Candidate Votes
1 Feb. 1715 SIR JOHN COPE
FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE
Henry Manaton
21 Mar. 1722 SIR JOHN COPE
SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE
22 Aug. 1727 SIR JOHN COPE
SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE
24 Feb. 1728 SIR HUMPHREY MONOUX vice Cope, chose to sit for Hampshire
29 Apr. 1734 CHARLES FANE
98
SYDNEY MEADOWS
90
Sir Francis Henry Drake
65
Sir John Cope
28
James Bulteel
27
9 May 1741 LORD SHERARD MANNERS
CHARLES FANE
28 Jan. 1742 JAMES HAMILTON, 1st Visct. Limerick, vice Manners, deceased
4 July 1747 RICHARD LEVESON GOWER
THOMAS BRAND
12 Dec. 1747 SIR RICHARD WROTTESLEY vice Leveson Gower, chose to sit for Lichfield
17 June 1749 WROTTESLEY re-elected after appointment to office
Main Article

Tavistock was controlled by the dukes of Bedford, who as lords of the manor nominated the returning officer and owned most of the town and the land round it. After 1715 the only contested election was that of 1734, when the 4th Duke replaced the Members who had represented it under his predecessor by his own nominees. The 2nd Lord Egmont wrote of Tavistock in his electoral survey, c.1749-50: ‘in the Duke of Bedford’.

Author
Notes
  • 1. Trans. Devon. Assoc. xliii. 379.