Lincolnshire

The leading family in Lincolnshire was the Berties, lord lieutenants of the county, created dukes of Ancaster on George I’s accession. In 1715 the county returned one Whig, Sir John Brownlow, connected by marriage with the Duke of Ancaster, and one Tory, Sir Willoughby Hickman, without a contest. On Hickman’s death in 1720 the Duke’s brother, Albemarle Bertie, was put up against a Tory, Sir William Massingberd, who wrote a fortnight before polling day:

A regular method of bringing people together is what I should be glad to have fixed upon, for as they [the Whigs] manage the matter and are open in their entertainments and bribe five guineas apiece, we can’t afford to lose anything lest the cause perish with the candidate. I have writ to all the clergymen between this place and Boston to acquaint them when the election begins and to desire them to be active in the getting their parishioners together and mounting such as are unprovided of horses.120 Dec. 1720, Massingberd Mundy deposit 2/10/7, Lincs. Archives Office.

At a meeting in Grantham called by the 3rd Earl of Cardigan, the Tory gentry agreed to bear the cost of bringing voters to the poll, Cardigan himself ‘undertaking a handsome share’.231 Dec. 1720, ibid. 2/10/9. Massingberd was returned by a large majority. In 1722 he and another Tory, Henry Heron, were unopposed.

On Massingberd’s death in December 1723 Robert Vyner, an independent Whig, stood against the Tory candidate, Sir Neville Hickman, the former Member’s son. Shortly before the election the 2nd Duke of Ancaster was appointed lord lieutenant in succession to his father, with orders ‘to go down and bring in Mr. Vyner’.38 Feb. 1724, ibid. 11/1/65. During the campaign a reputed friend of Hickman’s swore an affidavit that ‘Sir Neville Hickman did in my presence ... drink the late Duke of Ormonde’s health ... and after that proposed to drink the Pretender’s health by the name of James the Third’.43 Feb. 1724, Spalding Gentlemen’s Soc. mss. The Tories circulated a denial but Vyner was returned by a small majority, on which a local Whig declared: ‘It is not in the power of the Tories to choose another Member for our county’.5J. Waller to Mrs. Whichcot, 15 Feb. 1724, Aswarby mss 10/27/13, Lincs. Archives Office. Throughout the next reign Lincolnshire was represented by Vyner and other independent Whigs without a contest.