At Ipswich the two parties were so evenly balanced that the corporation could normally control elections through their power to create new freemen.CJ, xvii. 528. Both seats were filled by government candidates without opposition till 1727, when the sitting Members were re-elected after a contest. At a contested by-election in 1730 a Tory country gentleman was returned, causing the Whig Member for the borough to warn Walpole that it was ‘high time to try to defeat the Tory scheme, which our always forward ones have begun’.Francis Negus to Sir Robt. Walpole, 10 Aug. 1730, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. A violent contest occurred in 1734, when the corporation were divided between the supporters of the Government and those of a popular opposition candidate, Captain, afterwards the celebrated admiral, Vernon, who had bought an estate near Ipswich.G. R. Clarke, Ipswich, 91. On this occasion the government candidates were successful but in 1741 Vernon, then at the peak of his nationwide popularity, headed the poll, practically every elector voting for him. His fellow Member was Samuel Kent, a government supporter, who was re-elected with him unopposed in 1747.
