Background Information

Number of voters: about 6000

Constituency business
Date Candidate Votes
8 Feb. 1715 SIR RICHARD CHILD
THOMAS MIDLETON
Robert Honywood
William Harvey
31 May 1715 WILLIAM HARVEY vice Midleton, deceased
2,541
Robert Honywood
2,517
HONYWOOD vice Harvey, on petition, 18 May 1716
27 Mar. 1722 WILLIAM HARVEY
3,061
ROBERT HONYWOOD
2,993
Richard Child, Visct. Castlemaine
1,758
5 Sept. 1727 RICHARD CHILD, Visct. Castlemaine
SIR ROBERT ABDY
8 May 1734 SIR ROBERT ABDY
3,378
THOMAS BRAMSTON
3,056
John Tylney, Visct. Castlemaine
2,146
26 May 1741 SIR ROBERT ABDY
THOMAS BRAMSTON
14 July 1747 SIR ROBERT ABDY
WILLIAM HARVEY
13 Dec. 1748 SIR JOHN ABDY vice Sir Robert Abdy, deceased
Main Article

In the 1715 Parliament one seat was held by Sir Richard Child, later Lord Castlemaine, a Tory who went over to the Whigs, the other successively by two Whigs, Midleton and Honywood. From 1722 the representation was divided between a Whig and a Tory till 1734, when two Tories were returned after a contest with Castlemaine’s son, standing as a Whig. At the county meeting before the 1741 election Martin Bladen reported, 17 July 1740:

The Tories ... started their old Members, Abdy and Bramston, to which the Whigs demurred, in hopes of finding two others, to put up on the opposite side. But where to find them yet remains a difficulty.1Add. 32694, f. 165.

No Whig candidates materializing, two Tories were returned unopposed in 1741 and 1747.

Author
Notes
  • 1. Add. 32694, f. 165.