The principal interest belonged to the Stewarts earls of Galloway; they controlled Wigtown and Whithorn, and when either town was the presiding burgh could secure the return of their candidate. Stranraer was controlled by the Dalrymples, earls of Stair; and the Gordons of Kenmure had considerable influence in New Galloway.
This constituency was one of the most venal in Scotland, and no one family secured a lasting interest. The sitting Member at the dissolution in 1754, George Haldane, was in bitter conflict with the Duke of Argyll; and Argyll sponsored the candidature of Robert Cuninghame against him. Soon after Henry Pelham’s death Cuninghame withdrew in favour of Colonel Arthur Forbes, and in a list drawn up for Newcastle on 5 Apr. it was still considered doubtful which would carry it.
The burghs of Wick and Dornoch were at the beginning of the period under the control of the Sutherlands; until 1766 Kirkwall was commanded by Lord Morton, and thereafter by Sir Lawrence Dundas and his son Thomas; Tain was for most of the period in the hands of the Rosses of Inverchasley; while in Dingwall, which was very open, the Davidsons of Tulloch had influence.
‘These burghs’, wrote John Robinson in 1774, ‘are very open, venal, and expensive, and few choose to engage with them.’Laprade, 7. The leading interest at the beginning of this period belonged to the Earl of Rothes, whose son Thomas Leslie had represented the constituency since 1743.
Lanark was influenced by the Earl of Hyndford; Peebles by Lord March; the Duke of Hamilton and Sir Lawrence Dundas contended for control of Linlithgow; and Selkirk was usually influenced by the Duke of Buccleuch, and during the minority of the 3rd Duke by the Pringles of Haining.
Throughout this period these burghs were the scene of violent controversy. Haddington was influenced mainly by the Marquess of Tweeddale and the family of Wemyss; North Berwick by the Dalrymples; Lauder by the Earl of Lauderdale; Dunbar by the Falls, a wealthy merchant family; and Jedburgh by the Marquess of Lothian. Jedburgh was the most venal and turbulent, and from 1768 to 1774 was disfranchised and lost its turn as returning burgh. In the earlier part of the period Lord Milton, Argyll’s manager for Scotland, exercised considerable influence.
At the general election of 1754, Nairn was at the command of Hugh Rose of Kilravock; Forres was controlled by Lady Brodie; Fortrose by Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose; and in the burgh of Inverness the families of Grant any Macintosh had the chief influence. The sitting Member, Alexander Brodie, Lyon king-at-arms, died a month before Parliament was dissolved; his widow, Lady Brodie, then placed her interest at the disposal of the Duke of Newcastle. At the same time Hugh Rose had made common cause with Lord Fortrose, supporting him in Ross-shire, in exchange for his burgh of Fortrose.
Glasgow, already in the eighteenth century a great trading and manufacturing city, with a population rising from about 27,000 in 1755 to over 40,000 in 1775, had far outstripped the other burghs, none of which had a population of more than 2,000. Rutherglen, from its proximity to Glasgow, was largely dominated by the city’s wealthy merchants; Renfrew burgh politics usually followed those of the county; and Dumbarton was under the influence of the Duke of Argyll.
Edinburgh was governed by a council consisting of 25 members, 17 representing the merchants and eight the trades. For certain purposes, including the election of magistrates and of the Member of Parliament, the council was increased by the addition of eight extraordinary deacons, representing the remainder of the incorporated trades. Edinburgh was the only single burgh constituency in Scotland, and about 1754 the chief influence in its affairs was that of Archibald, Duke of Argyll, and his political manager Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton S.C.J.
