Carlisle lay between the estates of two Whig families, the Howards, earls of Carlisle, who traditionally recommended one Member, and the Lowthers, Viscounts Lonsdale, who normally refrained under George I and George II from competing with the Howards in Carlisle, for fear of reprisals in county elections. The frequent contests arose from the rival claims of three lesser families, the Stanwixes, the Aglionbys, and the Musgraves, to the other seat.
Cumberland politics were dominated by three Whig families, who owned the principal baronies: the Lowthers, Viscounts Lonsdale, the Howards, earls of Carlisle, and the Seymours, dukes of Somerset. Each of these families had its own sphere of influence, the Lowthers normally recommending at least one Member for the county, the Howards one for Carlisle, and the Seymours one for Cockermouth.
Both the Truro seats were controlled by Hugh Boscawen, 1st Lord Falmouth, and after him by his son Hugh, 2nd Lord Falmouth, whose seat at Tregothnan lay near by, and who had much property in the town. The only contest occurred in 1722, when two local candidates stood unsuccessfully. The 2nd Lord Falmouth wrote to the Prince of Wales, 12 May 1741:
In 1715 Tregony was a venal open borough. Its principal customers were the Treasury, who usually bought one seat, and wealthy London merchants, who competed for the other. The chief local interests were in Hugh Boscawen, created Lord Falmouth 1720, lord of the manor and chief government election manager in Cornwall; and John Trevanion of Carhayes, three miles away, also a government supporter. Another electoral factor was the Rev.
The chief interests at Saltash in 1715 were those of two neighbouring landowners, Tories, John Francis Buller and Sir William Carew, who owned the majority of the burgages in the borough, which their families had represented since the early seventeenth century. It was in dispute whether the franchise was only in the corporation of 27 members or also in the 30 odd burgage-holders.
The patronage of St. Mawes was shared between John Knight, who became lord of the manor by purchasing the Tredenham estates c.1710,W. P. Courtney, Parl. Rep. Cornw. 92. and Hugh Boscawen, later Lord Falmouth, governor of its castle and the Government’s electoral manager in Cornwall, who had much property in the vicinity.
St. Germans was the pocket borough of the Eliots of Port Eliot, who as lords of the manor appointed the returning officer, placing the seats not occupied by themselves first at the disposal of the Administration and from 1734 at that of the Prince of Wales. Thomas Pitt wrote in 1740: ‘the borough is at the disposal of Mr. Eliot, without opposition’,
The chief interests at Penryn in 1715 were those of the Boscawen, Trefusis and Godolphin families. Till 1734 the borough was represented by members or nominees of these families without opposition.
The Morices of Werrington, as lords of the manor, appointed the two returning officers or vianders of Newport, which was represented exclusively by them and their relatives between 1715 and 1754. Their hold was unchallenged until just before 1748, when the Duke of Bedford purchased the Newport burgages of the Manatons of Kilworthy,HMC Fortescue, i. 132-3. who had a ‘considerable interest’ in the borough.Sir Nich. Morice to Humphry Morice, 22 Oct.
In 1715 the lord of the manor of Mitchell was Henry Arundell, 5th Baron Arundell of Wardour, a Roman Catholic and a Jacobite. The five deputy lords, from among whom the returning officer was chosen, were three Tories, Sir Richard Vyvyan, 3rd Bt., M.P., Sir William Carew and William Courtenay, M.P.