Leicester

The chief interest at Leicester was that of the Tory corporation, who were Jacobite sympathizers. Troops were quartered in the town during the rebellion of 1715. At the time of the Atterbury plot of 1722, the Duke of Rutland and other Whig leaders alleged that the corporation had allowed the enlisting of men in the Pretender’s service and the proclaiming of him as James III in the town. They were also accused of tolerating Jacobite disturbances in 1738 and 1744. The Whigs in Leicester drew their main support from the hosiers, who by the mid-1740s formed nearly half of the freemen, and were largely Dissenters.1VCH Leics. iv. 123-6, 178; R. Greaves, Corp. of Leicester, 92-94, 97-98.

Both seats were held by Tory country gentlemen until 1722 when its recorder, Lawrence Carter, solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales, was returned. On Carter’s being made a judge, Thomas Boothby Skrymsher, related to the Walpoles, succeeded him. Skrymsher lost his seat in 1727, petitioning on the ground that the mayor as returning officer had rejected legal votes for him, accepted votes against him by persons who had no right to vote, and created great numbers of freemen to vote for his opponents, though they had no right to be made freemen.2CJ, xxi. 32. The petition was not heard. After this only Tories were returned.