Old Sarum

Old Sarum was an ancient but entirely depopulated borough, the site of which was bought in 1692 by Governor Thomas Pitt, who ‘ploughed and sowed’ the castle area. The few burgages lay in the meadows to the south of the castle alongside the Roman road running to the Avon ford. Elections were held at the parliamentary tree, which stood till 1905 in the ‘electing acre’ nearly half-way to the river on the north-west side of the road.1VCH Wilts, vi. 66-67, citing electoral map of Old Sarum, c. 1700, in Salisbury Mus.; CJ, xv. 61. Complete control was soon exercised by the Pitts who provided enough voters to quell opposition on election day. Thus Thomas Winnington wrote to Henry Fox at the end of September 1728:

It was your fortune to lose the election [at old Sarum] by one voice only, for Pitt, not suspecting any opposition, had but two voters there except the person who voted for you.2Ilchester, Lord Holland, i. 29-30.

In 1749 Thomas Pitt, the Governor’s grandson, ‘representing the desperate embarrassment of his affairs’,3HMC Fortescue, i. 133-4. transferred his right of nominating both members to the Prince of Wales for £3,000 and a pension. At the next by-election, in January 1751, the Prince put in Paul Jodrell, his solicitor-general. When two months later Frederick died, Pitt pawned all his electoral interests, including Old Sarum, to the Administration.4See PITT, Thomas (d. 1761). As a result of this deal Simon Fanshawe, a Pelhamite, was returned at another by-election in November 1751, though opposed by James Pitt, younger brother of George Pitt of Strathfieldsaye, and another candidate.