The chief interest at Queenborough was that of the Admiralty, on whom the inhabitants depended for employment. Elections were managed by the corporation through their power of creating new freemen. Under George I all the Members returned were government supporters, but it was not till the next reign that the Administration gained complete control of the borough.
Maidstone, the 2nd Lord Egmont wrote in his electoral survey, c.1749-50, ‘is a perplexed interest’. The chief interests in 1715 were those of the Finches, earls of Aylesford, Tories, and the Marshams, later Lords Romney, Whigs; but for nearly 30 years after the 1st Lord’s death in 1724, his successor took no part in local politics.
In Canterbury, one of the nineteen cities and towns being counties in themselves, the returning officer was a sheriff, appointed by the corporation.
Huntingdon was dominated by the earls of Sandwich, who lived at Hinchingbrooke within the town, nominating both Members, usually without opposition. The only contest that occurred between 1715 and 1754 was in 1741, when the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who on coming of age in 1739 had joined the Opposition, put up two anti-government candidates, Wills Hill and Edward Montagu, against two government candidates, Roger Handasyde and Albert Nesbitt.
At the accession of George I the chief interests in St. Albans were those of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, derived from the estate of Sandridge, close to the borough, of the Grimstons of Gorhambury, two miles away, and of the corporation from the mayor’s power of creating honorary freemen. The Lomax and the Gape families, whose estates lay near the town, also had some electoral influence. The Grimstons and the Lomaxes were government Whigs; the Duchess soon became bitterly opposed to Walpole; the Gapes were Tories; the corporation sided alternately with the two major interests.
Hertford was always represented by members of the local landed families, mostly of comparatively recent origin, descended from London lawyers, merchants and bankers, who had bought estates in the county. There was a large nonconformist vote, which supported the Whigs, except for the Quakers, who even before the Spencer Cowper case in 1699 appear to have voted Tory.CJ, x.
Till 1737 Weobley was an independent venal borough, usually returning candidates drawn from local families at £15-£20 a vote.Ld. Weymouth to Ld. Gower, 7 Nov. 1735, Bath mss, Longleat. In that year the House of Commons, on a petition by James Cornewall against John Birch, decided that the right of election was in the occupiers or owners of certain ‘ancient vote-houses’ and not in the householders at large.CJ, xxii. 770. Commenting on this decision, Edward Harley observed that
Leominster had a reputation for venality. In 1717 George Caswall’s agent was paying up to 20 guineas a man;Ibid. 573. in 1721 Edward Harley, then M.P. for the borough, said that it had ‘become mercenary, and the best bidder will have the best interest to be served’;To the Duke of Chandos, 21 Dec. 1721, Portland mss. and all that the 2nd Lord Egmont could say for it in his electoral survey, c. 1749-50, was that he did ‘not think it so venal as to be carried by the best bidder’.
Hereford was an independent borough, usually represented by local country gentlemen. Owing to the size of the electorate the borough was regarded by the Duke of Chandos as ‘extravagantly expensive’. In 1727 he reckoned that it would be necessary to pay at least 500 voters 5 or 6 guineas a head to secure the return of his candidates.Chandos to Capt. Oakeley, 12 July 1727, to H. R. Westfaling, 8 Aug. 1727, Chandos letter bks.
Till 1734 the Winchester corporation returned the relations of Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton, the lord lieutenant of the county, and George Brydges, a neighbouring landowner, related to the 1st Duke of Chandos. An undated letter shows the two dukes, on behalf of Brydges, representing to Walpole that it was of consequence to the interest at Winchester that a patent applied for by the corporation should be passed immediately.Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss 3264.
