Throughout the reign of George I, Hertfordshire was represented by two Tories, Ralph Freman and Sir Thomas Sebright. In 1727 Freman, after representing the county for 30 years, was ousted by his brother-in-law, Charles Caesar, who had stood unsuccessfully in 1722. Although Freman was a Hanoverian Tory, on both occasions Caesar, a Jacobite, was supported by leading local Whigs, such as William Plumer; in 1727 Freman complained that ‘the Government’s officers to a man opposed him in favour of Mr.

Till 1737 Weobley was an independent venal borough, usually returning candidates drawn from local families at £15-£20 a vote.Ld. Weymouth to Ld. Gower, 7 Nov. 1735, Bath mss, Longleat. In that year the House of Commons, on a petition by James Cornewall against John Birch, decided that the right of election was in the occupiers or owners of certain ‘ancient vote-houses’ and not in the householders at large.CJ, xxii. 770. Commenting on this decision, Edward Harley observed that

Leominster had a reputation for venality. In 1717 George Caswall’s agent was paying up to 20 guineas a man;Ibid. 573. in 1721 Edward Harley, then M.P. for the borough, said that it had ‘become mercenary, and the best bidder will have the best interest to be served’;To the Duke of Chandos, 21 Dec. 1721, Portland mss. and all that the 2nd Lord Egmont could say for it in his electoral survey, c. 1749-50, was that he did ‘not think it so venal as to be carried by the best bidder’.

Hereford was an independent borough, usually represented by local country gentlemen. Owing to the size of the electorate the borough was regarded by the Duke of Chandos as ‘extravagantly expensive’. In 1727 he reckoned that it would be necessary to pay at least 500 voters 5 or 6 guineas a head to secure the return of his candidates.Chandos to Capt. Oakeley, 12 July 1727, to H. R. Westfaling, 8 Aug. 1727, Chandos letter bks.

Throughout the reigns of George I and George II Herefordshire returned Tories at every general election. The only contest occurred in 1722, when Sir Hungerford Hoskyns, a Whig, who had been returned at a by-election in 1717, stood with the backing of his uncle by marriage, the Duke of Chandos, lord lieutenant of the county. Chandos instructed his agent

to wait upon as many of the gentlemen as are in the neighbourhood, and in my name to desire their favour on his [Hoskyns’s] behalf, and also you’ll endeavour to engage as many of the freeholders as you can.

Till 1734 the Winchester corporation returned the relations of Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton, the lord lieutenant of the county, and George Brydges, a neighbouring landowner, related to the 1st Duke of Chandos. An undated letter shows the two dukes, on behalf of Brydges, representing to Walpole that it was of consequence to the interest at Winchester that a patent applied for by the corporation should be passed immediately.Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss 3264.

In 1715 the chief burgage owners at Whitchurch were Thomas Vernon, a Tory, who returned himself, and John Wallop, a neighbouring Whig landowner, who returned General Carpenter. On Vernon’s expulsion from the House of Commons in 1721, Wallop, now Lord Lymington, put up his friend John Conduitt, on the understanding that Conduitt should make way for Wallop’s son when the boy came of age. Returned on petition, Conduitt was re-elected with Vernon at the general election of 1722.

At Stockbridge, a notoriously venal borough, elections depended on securing the bailiff, who was the returning officer. In 1715, when two Whigs, Thomas Brodrick and Martin Bladen, were returned, their opponents petitioned on the ground that the bailiff, ‘a known agent’ of the sitting Members, had polled a number of unqualified voters for his clients.CJ, xviii. 35. The petition was not heard. On 6 Feb. 1720 Brodrick wrote:

The chief interest in Southampton was that of the corporation, consisting of the mayor, recorder, sheriff, two bailiffs, and all who had served in those offices. The corporation had the power of creating unlimited new freemen and the returning officers were the mayor and bailiffs. Members returned were usually neighbouring landowners or persons with strong local connexions.

An Admiralty borough, Portsmouth was managed by channelling local patronage through the corporation, who controlled the representation by their power to create freemen. Soon after George I’s accession its governor, Lord North and Grey, an extreme Tory, was informed by his agent there that Sir Charles Wager had come down, caused 59 new freemen to be admitted, and deprived the agent of his receivership of the land tax. Next month Lord North was dismissed.John Mellish to North, 11 Sept.