Commons 1660-1690

There was no predominant influence at Wallingford, and most candidates were nearby residents. There were three known contested elections. In 1660 Hungerford Dunch was returned, son of a Cromwellian ‘peer’ whose family had frequently represented the borough, along with the former recruiter Robert Packer, a Presbyterian. Dunch chose to sit for Cricklade, and the ensuing by-election was contested by the Cavalier, Sir Humphrey Bennet, and Thomas Saunders, whose earlier political career is obscure.

Reading had previously been a corporation borough, but the extension of the franchise to the freemen was confirmed in 1659. There was no predominant interest either within or without Reading to control one of the country’s largest borough electorates, and five elections are known to have been contested. Of the ten Members, John Blagrave, Nathan Knight and Thomas Coates were townsmen, and most of the remainder had strong local connexions. In 1660, Thomas Rich, a cautious Royalist, and Blagrave, a moderate Parliamentarian, were unanimously returned by over 1,000 electors.

Though there were precedents both for a corporation franchise and for the prescriptive right of the inhabitant householders to vote, the disputed elections at Windsor are chiefly attributable to unscrupulous efforts by the Opposition to eliminate the castle interest. It was later alleged that in 1660, when this interest was in abeyance, the election was held at the market cross on the wide franchise.

The interest of the Stonhouse family of Radley predominated at Abingdon during the period, though, perhaps because of the practice of scrutinizing qualifications only after the poll, there were a number of disputed returns. In 1660, the seat was contested by the Royalist, Sir George Stonhouse, and John Lenthall, a dexterous complier with every regime. A double return ensued, with Stonhouse’s indenture signed by the two bailiffs and Lenthall’s by the mayor.

The ancient custom of the county was to elect one Member from the ‘Forest’, the other from the ‘Vale’, or the eastern and western sections of the shire, with Reading as the dividing line. Generally the custom was observed, except when political exigencies overrode geographical interests. Though Reading was a convenient central point, polling always took place at Abingdon, the county town, but poll figures do not survive for this period.

Bedford was a borough by prescription, in which the mayor and the two bailiffs acted as returning officers. The corporation had the right to create freemen. Several aristocratic families enjoyed an interest, notably the Wentworths, until the death of the Earl of Cleveland in 1667, the St. Johns of Bletso, and towards the end of the period the Bruces. In the contest between the latter families the recordership was the principal prize at stake. There is no sign of Russell influence during the period.

Lord Ailesbury, himself an unsuccessful candidate for Bedfordshire in this period, regretted that the device of a preliminary gentry meeting had not taken root in this small county, and three of the elections were certainly contested. In the second half of the period these ‘senseless and expensive animosities’ can be ascribed to the rivalry of the courtly Bruces of Ampthill and the Russells of Woburn, whose name was to become almost synonymous with Whiggery.