Borough

The 3rd Duke of Dorset owned 29 of the 36 burgages in the borough and returned both Members. Nathaniel Dance, whose wife was a near relation of his, nevertheless paid him £4,000 for a seat plus £50 to entertain the electors in 1796. When the duke died in 1799, by a controversial will he left his property and his electoral interest at East Grinstead to his wife for life, his heir being a minor.Oldfield, Boroughs, ii. 166; Rep. Hist. v. 55; Key (1820), 18; Farington Diary (Yale ed.), ii. 550, 559; Wraxall Mems. ed. Wheatley, iv.

Although there were only two effective contests in this period, Chichester remained an open borough. The 3rd Duke of Richmond had failed to carry both Members in 1784 when White Thomas was championed by the independent party of Blues anxious to prevent a ducal monopoly. Lest they should attempt to oust Richmond altogether, his surviving nominee Thomas Steele, whose roots were local, pretended to dissociate himself from his patron in his preliminary canvass for the election of 1790. The manoeuvre failed and Steele reverted to avowed reliance on Richmond.

By an agreement which had operated since 1774, the two owners of the ‘miserable thatched cottages’ which gave the right to vote at Bramber returned a Member each throughout this period. They were Sir Henry Gough Calthorpe, 2nd Bt., and the 5th Duke of Rutland. Gough Calthorpe on obtaining a peerage in 1796 returned Adams. After his death in 1798, with his sons still minors, Jodrell and his widow’s friend Wilberforce were returned in succession. Rutland was also a minor until 1799 and his mother and uncle the 5th Duke of Beaufort supervised the returns until then.

Arundel remained an open borough, although there was no contest until 1812. Sir George Thomas, returned with the Whig 11th Duke of Norfolk’s cousin in 1790, informed Pitt in 1795:

‘The Borough’, with its volatile and growing electorate, was the scene of contests replete with ‘all that low scurrility which takes place at popular elections’ at every election in this period but one.The Times, 7 June 1803. The exception was in 1790, and even then the publicans, missionaries of the Southwark brewers, tried to foment a contest by putting up one Fassett, in his absence at Cheltenham, as a third man.

The co-patrons of Reigate, owning most of the freeholds between them, were the cousins german Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers, and Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke. On 10 Apr. 1786 they renewed their family pact to return a Member each.Add. 35641, f. 128. From 1790 until 1806 Somers returned his heir, while the Hardwickes were represented by the 3rd Earl’s half-brother.

In 1780 James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, having purchased the majority of the freeholds, became sole patron of the borough. The only other interest that might have given him trouble was that of Sir Peter Burrell (afterwards Baron Gwydir), but Lonsdale was not challenged when he returned satellites friendly to administration.

The Onslows of nearby Clandon Park lost their monopoly of the representation in 1766 when, for the sake of peace, they conceded one seat to Sir Fletcher Norton of Wonersh, afterwards 1st Baron Grantley. Until 1790 the two families returned a Member each, unopposed, but five of the next seven elections were contested. The challenge was to the Nortons.

Between 1786 and 1800 the close borough of Gatton changed hands several times. Sir William Mayne, 1st Baron Newhaven, started the ball rolling in 1786. In 1788, when Samuel Whitbread I was interested, the land was valued at £36,000, doubled by the ‘peculiar rights annexed to it’ and, with the advowson and houses, the asking price was £86,000.

Sir Robert Clayton, 3rd Bt., was sole proprietor of Bletchingley. Until his death in 1799, when not returning himself he took paying guests, who, like himself, opposed Pitt’s administration. Francis paid £4,200 in 1790 and Hobhouse £4,000, with freedom of action, in 1797.Blair Adam mss, Graham to Adam, 24 Jan., Hobhouse to ?, 30 Jan.