From the Union to 1734 the representation of Haddington Burghs was monopolized by the Dalrymples of Hailes, a branch of the family of the earls of Stair. In 1734 Sir James Dalrymple, having followed the head of his family, Lord Stair, into opposition, was defeated by James Fall, a wealthy Dunbar merchant, with the support of the Government. Dalrymple and the town councils of all the burghs, except Dunbar, petitioned unsuccessfully on the grounds that Fall had not been returned by the legal common clerk of Jedburgh, the presiding burgh. When the petition was heard on 12 Mar.

The chief interests in Glasgow Burghs were those of the Campbells, dukes of Argyll, and of the town council of Glasgow, then entering on a period of prosperity, based on the tobacco trade. The Members, who were expected to look after the city’s commercial interests, were either merchants, preferably with London connexions, or relations of the dukes of Argyll.

The chief interests in Elgin Burghs were those of the Earl of Kintore, who controlled Kintore and Inverurie, and the Earl of Findlater, who controlled Banff and Cullen. In 1715 the rival candidates were James Murray, later secretary of state to the Pretender, supported by Lord Kintore, and Col. John Campbell, first cousin to the Duke of Argyll, supported by Lord Findlater.More Culloden Pprs. ii. 49-51. The issue depended on the fifth burgh, Elgin, which two rival delegates, one pro-Murray, the other pro-Campbell, claimed the right to represent at the election meeting.

Edinburgh was the only single burgh constituency in Scotland. Before the Union it had returned two Members, one a merchant and the other a tradesman. The electoral council, consisting of the corporation plus seven extraordinary members, was under the influence of the dukes of Argyll. It usually returned the lord provost or a councillor as Member.

At George I’s accession the chief interests in Dysart Burghs were those of the Earl of Rothes, a Squadrone Whig, and James St. Clair, also a Whig but of the rival Argyll faction. In 1715 William Kerr, the brother of the leader of the Squadrone, the Duke of Roxburghe, was returned unopposed in the Rothes interest.

As in Dumfriesshire, the chief interests in Dumfries Burghs were in the Douglases, dukes of Queensberry, and the Johnstones, marquesses of Annandale, who usually co-operated. In 1715, when the Duke was a minor, Alexander Fergusson was returned in succession to his uncle by marriage, Sir William Johnstone, of a junior branch of the Annandale family.

Of the five Ayr burghs, Inverary and Campbeltown were controlled by the dukes of Argyll, and Rothesay by the earls of Bute, allied by the 2nd Earl’s marriage to the 2nd Duke’s sister in 1711. The predominant partners in this alliance were the dukes of Argyll, especially after the death of the 2nd Earl of Bute in 1723, when the 2nd Duke of Argyll and his brother, Lord Ilay, became the guardians of their nephew, the 3rd Earl of Bute, then aged 10. Throughout the period Argyll-Bute nominees were returned without opposition.

The predominant interest in these five small decaying coastal burghs lay in the Anstruther family, headed by Sir John Anstruther, whose nephew, Philip Anstruther, was returned unopposed in 1715.

In 1715 James Erskine, a Tory, was returned against John Middleton, a Whig, attached to the Duke of Argyll. Middleton petitioned successfully, on the ground that two of the delegates voting for Erskine had been illegally elected. In 1722 Middleton was defeated by William Kerr, brother of the Duke of Roxburghe, the head of the anti-Argyll faction known as the Squadrone. Middleton again petitioned, this time on the ground that he had been returned by the clerk of the presiding burgh, who was the legal returning officer, notwithstanding which the sheriff had wrongfully returned Erskine.

The chief interest in Wigtownshire was that of the Agnews of Lochnaw, till 1748 its hereditary sheriffs, in alliance with the Stewarts, earls of Galloway, and the Dalrymples, earls of Stair. In 1715, John Stewart, an Argyll Whig, and brother to the 5th Earl of Galloway, Sir James Agnew’s brother-in-law, was returned. He was succeeded in 1727 by William Dalrymple, Agnew’s first cousin by marriage.