Chippenham

At the accession of George I Chippenham was an open borough, with the Whig and Tory interests fairly evenly balanced. In 1715 and 1727 ministerial supporters were returned, but in 1722 and 1734 the Government secured only one seat, which was lost at a by-election in 1737 to an opposition Whig, Edward Bayntun Rolt, of Spye Park, four miles from the town, an estate carrying with it the most important interest in the borough.

At the next general election great efforts were made by the Government to recover both seats. But in October 1740 Bayntun Rolt and Sir Edmund Thomas, the other opposition candidate, with several of their supporters, were made freemen,1Chippenham Recs. ed. Goldney, 81. thus acquiring control of the corporation and with it the nomination of the bailiff, who acted as returning officer. Two days before the election they are alleged to have brought into the town ‘a considerable number of armed men ... to terrify and intimidate the voters’. Their final blow was to arrange for the arrest on a trumped up charge of their opponents’ chief supporter, the sheriff, who was detained at Devizes, bail of £10,000 being refused, till the morning after the poll.2CJ, xxiv. 15-16. After an expensive and disorderly contest, on which one of the government candidates spent some £4,000,3Add. 32995, f. 172. Bayntun Rolt and Thomas were narrowly elected. The resulting petition was dealt with on purely party lines by the House of Commons, who on 28 Jan. 1742 decided a minor point in connexion with it against the Government by one vote, the immediate cause of Walpole’s resignation. On 2 Feb. the final determination of the petition was carried against the Administration by 16 votes. No future election at Chippenham was contested till 1802.