Beverley

For nearly a century the representation of Beverley was practically monopolized by two neighbouring families, the Wartons and the Hothams. When Sir Michael Warton, the last of his line, retired in 1722, his interest passed to his nephews and coheirs, Michael Newton, an opposition Whig, M.P. Beverley 1722-7, and Charles Pelham, a Tory, who sat for the borough 1727-34 and 1738-54. From Warton’s retirement till the Hotham interest fell into abeyance in 1738, on the death of the 5th baronet, leaving an infant heir, there was a series of contests caused by the intervention of Ellerker Bradshaw, a neighbouring country gentleman, who ousted Hotham in 1727 by methods resulting not only in his being unseated on petition but in the passing of the Bribery Act of 1729; recovered his seat in 1734 by defeating Charles Pelham; and was finally defeated by Pelham and William Strickland in 1741. In 1747 Pelham was unopposed with Sir William Codrington, whose uncle, Slingsby Bethell owned considerable property in that part of Yorkshire. In the 2nd Lord Egmont’s electoral survey, c.1749-50, Beverley is described as ‘in Charles Pelham and the adjacent county gentlemen’.