Heytesbury

Both seats at Heytesbury were controlled by William Ashe I, the lord of the manor, who owned most of the burgages and also appointed the returning officer, his bailiff. Generally the borough was used to provide for his own family. Ashe returned himself, his sons Edward and William II, his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Ernle, 3rd Bt., and his son-in-law Pierce A’Court: all were Whigs. Occasionally an outside Whig was nominated. In 1690, before Edward came of age, Ashe’s Wiltshire friend William Trenchard was elected, and in 1702 and 1705, when he himself was putting up for the county and before William Ashe II was considered as a candidate, William Monson (to whom he was distantly related by his first marriage) was elected. No contest is known to have taken place in this period.1 Wilts. Arch. Mag. lvii.223; Add. 70018, f. 69.