Great Grimsby

Grimsby was a venal borough, the resort of shady business men, including a strong South Sea contingent— Arthur Moore, expelled from his South Sea directorship in 1714; Sir Robert Chaplin, expelled from the House of Commons for his complicity in the South Sea scandal; John Gore, another guilty but less seriously implicated director, and his brother-in-law, Charles Pelham; Robert Knight, John Page, and Benjamin Collyer, respectively the son, son-in-law, and brother-in-law of Robert Knight, the absconding cashier of the Company. Other Grimsby M.P.s were Sir Robert Sutton, expelled from the House of Commons for the frauds in the Charitable Corporation, Joseph Banks, a land speculator, who out-smarted Moore at an election, and William Lock, a financier. The only Member not in business was George Monson, a barrister. From 1734 the most important electoral influence was that of Christopher Clayton, the town’s high steward, who supported Robert Knight. It was said that ‘through his interest one Member is constantly chosen and if he would exert himself it is not unlikely that both might’.1G. Oliver, Grimsby, 123; Tennyson d’Eyncourt mss B24, Lincs. Archives Office.