Norfolk

At George I’s accession the chief Norfolk families on the Whig side were the Townshends and Walpoles, on the Tory, the Wodehouses and Astleys. The sitting Members, Sir Jacob Astley and Sir Edmund Bacon, were Tories, but before the general election of 1715 Walpole won over Astley, who joined with a Whig, Thomas de Grey, to defeat two Tories. A petition by the defeated candidates, alleging that they had a majority of legal votes but that a majority for their opponents had been obtained by allowing great numbers of unqualified persons to vote, was referred to the elections committee, where it remained unheard.1CJ, xviii. 38; Account of Norfolk county elections, 1713-68, Norwich City Central Lib. N.R.S. 13686, 28D4. At the next two elections Whigs were unopposed, but in 1734 the Tories put up Sir Edmund Bacon and William Wodehouse, who defeated both Walpole’s candidates by a majority of six, after a contest so expensive that the next four general elections were compromised, each side taking one seat.