Haslemere

In 1715 both Haslemere seats were won by Whigs after a contest with two Tories. From 1722 they were held by James Oglethorpe, a neighbouring landowner, whose family had often sat for the borough, and Peter Burrell, a wealthy merchant, jointly for 32 years; but there were other rival interests, notably the Molyneuxes of Loseley, who were lords of the manor, and the Onslows of Clandon, who had often been returned for Haslemere. In 1727 there were at one time no less than seven candidates in the field;Alan Brodrick to Ld. Midleton, 4 July 1727, Brodrick mss. before the general election of 1734 Oglethorpe, threatened with an opposition, appealed to Walpole to put pressure on Sir More Molyneux;Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. in 1741 the 2nd Lord Egmont had to be bought off by paying the expenses he had incurred in putting up for Haslemere.HMC Egmont Diary, iii. 244-5. In Egmont’s electoral survey, c.1749-50, he wrote of Haslemere:

This borough is far from being so secure as the world imagines. In the first place the returning officer is in Sir More Molyneux, a gentleman not of spirit and in indifferent circumstances, who has now a very small employment of £200 or £300 a year only to keep him to the Court. In the second place the majority of the voters are certainly desirous to enter into a combination against the present union of Burrell and Oglethorpe, which spoils entirely their market. In the third place, the burgage tenures have been so conveyed away backward and forward to make occasional votes that upon close inspection few could make out their titles.

His views were confirmed in 1754, when Oglethorpe and Burrell lost their seats.