The two most powerful electoral interests in the county were those of Lord Darlington and the bishop of Durham. One seat was readily conceded by the county to the Vane family, but when on the death of George Bowes, 17 Sept. 1760, Darlington tried to recommend also to the other seat, he met with strong opposition from Lord Ravensworth and many other influential families in the county. Before Bowes had died, Darlington wrote on 7 Sept.
Throughout this period Durham was represented by the Lambton and Tempest families. At the general election of 1761 they were challenged by the Earl of Darlington, who, with the support of the corporation and of the bishop of Durham, set up Ralph Gowland. Gowland was defeated, but stood again at the by-election in December. This, the most controversial Durham election of the century, resulted in a victory for Gowland by three votes on a poll of over 1,500, but only because the corporation had created over 200 honorary freemen to carry the election.E.
According to a survey in the Calcraft papers at Rempstone there were in 1753 about 500 tenements at Wareham, of which more than a hundred belonged to the Draxes, and above 50 to the Pitts. On 19 May 1750 John Pitt wrote to Henry PelhamNewcastle (Clumber) mss. about a project on foot ‘for bringing about a reconciliation between me and Mr. Drax, which ... will secure me the constant nomination of a Member at Wareham’. It obviously failed; only after the election of April 1754 had been declared voidCJ, 19 Dec.
Government had considerable interest through the customs and the Crown quarries at Portland. The most important private interest belonged to the Tucker family, who for many years held the post of supervisor of the Portland quarries, and to George Bubb Dodington, who joined his interest to that of Tucker and acted as intermediary with Government. In 1744 Dodington came to an agreement with Henry Pelham by which Government should recommend to two seats in exchange for the disposal of patronage.
There was an old and close connexion between Poole and Newfoundland: trade with Newfoundland and the Carolinas ranked foremost in Poole’s eighteenth-century economy, and the interests of Newfoundland were usually attended to in Parliament and Government departments by the Members for Poole and Dartmouth. Poole corporation was dominated by a merchant oligarchy, but most of the Members were big London merchants concerned in the Newfoundland trade, or neighbouring squires.
Shaftesbury, wrote Lord Ilchester to Newcastle on 13 Aug. 1754, was a ‘troublesome, expensive, and corrupt’ borough. For some time Ilchester had disputed its control with Lord Shaftesbury, but in 1747 they agreed each to nominate one Member; and by 1754 were ‘very good friends and upon good terms’.Add. 32736, f. 235.
An historian of Shaftesbury writes about this agreement:J. Rutter, ‘Hist. Shaftesbury’, t/s in Shaftesbury Mus.
There was no dominant interest, but a number of local landowners had influence: the Earl of Shaftesbury, high steward 1757-71; Lord Milton, high steward 1771-98; the Earl of Cholmondeley; and the Pitts of Encombe. There was also an independent vote. In 1754 John Pitt, one of the sitting Members, concluded a compromise with Lord Milton. Lord Malpas, defeated at Dorchester in 1752, who had intended to stand again, was persuaded by Henry Pelham to support the compromise. William Templeman, of a family of local attorneys much concerned in Dorset borough elections, wrote to Malpas, 23 Mar.
John Scrope, Walpole’s secretary to the Treasury, represented Lyme Regis from 1734 till his death in 1752. By the judicious use of Government patronage, and by reducing the number of freemen and introducing non-residents into the corporation, he built up an interest in the borough which passed at his death to his nephew, Francis Fane. The Fanes continued to manage the borough, as Scrope had done, with the help of Government; and in 1758 they were given £100 per annum from secret service funds for Lyme.
Throughout this period Corfe Castle was invariably represented by members or nominees of the families of Bankes and Bond, without a single contest carried to a poll. The two families worked together in the closest association. John Bankes wrote to John Bond on 29 Oct. 1757:Bond mss at Creech Grange, Dorset.
In the second half of the eighteenth century Bridport was a seaport with a thriving West Indian trade. The Pinneys, West Indian planters, with considerable property near Bridport, possessed an interest in the borough. So did other families, but no one interest was predominant. That of Lord Coventry, whose family had represented the borough for several generations, was described by Rockingham in 1765 as ‘very good’, and Thomas Coventry held one seat 1754-80.
