Staffordshire

Economic and social profile:

Economic and social profile:

Uniquely, the borough of Tamworth straddled two counties: the larger part, including the castle, lay in Warwickshire; the smaller, including the church, in Staffordshire. As a consequence, a writ from each sheriff was necessary for an election to be held. The dominant interest belonged to Viscount Weymouth (Thomas Thynne†) who held the manors of Drayton and Tamworth and had a local rent-roll worth over £3,000 p.a.

Stafford, the county town, had seen considerable electoral manoeuvrings during the Restoration period but no actual polling of rival candidates. In 1690, however, there was a challenge to the more Whiggish of the outgoing Members, Philip Foley, from a Tory, Jonathan Cope I, which resulted in a poll. All three candidates were local gentlemen, but John Chetwynd, who topped the poll, had the support of the corporation. The real contest was for the other seat and here the role of the mayor, as the returning officer, proved vital.

Newcastle-under-Lyme was a small market town governed by a corporation consisting of a mayor and 24 capital burgesses which was able to exercise considerable political influence through its regulatory powers over trade and its control over the franchise. However, these powers were insufficient to wrest the parliamentary representation of the borough away from the neighbouring gentry, particularly those families with property in the town such as the Leveson Gowers of Trentham.

Lichfield had been made a county in its own right by a charter of 1553, hence the inclusion of a freeholder franchise. The government rested with two bailiffs, a sheriff and 21 brethren, although the cathedral close, effectively separated from the town by ‘pools’, was outside lay jurisdiction. Contemporary observers seem to have disagreed about its condition, Sir John Perceval, 5th Bt.†, noting in 1701 that little was manufactured there except for woollen caps, whereas Defoe detected a flourishing cloth trade 20 years later.

In 1754 two men had an important interest at Tamworth: Lord Weymouth, owner of Drayton Manor, two miles from Tamworth, and George Townshend, owner of the castle. Of lesser importance were Sir Robert Burdett and Simon Luttrell. Burdett, of an old Warwickshire family, M.P. for Tamworth since 1748, had the support of those who feared aristocratic domination.