Herefordshire

<p>The hold of the Whig 11th Duke of Norfolk on a borough with such a large freeman electorate from 1784 until his death in 1815 was a remarkable phenomenon. His marriage to the heiress of the Scudamores of Holme Lacey was at the bottom of it; their kinsmen the Scudamores of Kentchurch provided one Member from 1764 until 1818, while Norfolk stood behind Walwyn and Symonds, two other county gentlemen.

<p>Till 1737 Weobley was an independent venal borough, usually returning candidates drawn from local families at £15-£20 a vote.<fn>Ld. Weymouth to Ld. Gower, 7 Nov. 1735, Bath mss, Longleat.</fn> 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.<fn><em>CJ</em>, xxii.

<p>Leominster had a reputation for venality. In 1717 George Caswall’s agent was paying up to 20 guineas a man;<fn>Ibid. 573.</fn> 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’;<fn>To the Duke of Chandos, 21 Dec. 1721, Portland mss.</fn> 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’.

<p>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.<fn>Chandos to Capt. Oakeley, 12 July 1727, to H. R. Westfaling, 8 Aug.

<p>Weobley, an insignificant market town, was re-enfranchised in 1628 at the instance of <a href="/landingpage/TOMKYNSJXXXX" title="James Tomkyns" class="link">James Tomkyns</a>, whose son Thomas sat for the borough from August 1660 to his death.

<p>In 1668, 224 houses paid hearth tax in Leominster, of which 35 were held by women; presumably the numbers on the scot and lot roll were similar. At the general election of 1660, John Birch, the intruded high steward, enjoyed the best interest, and defeated the efforts of <a href="/landingpage/56202" title="Edward Massey" class="link">Edward Massey</a> to prevent his election. The other Member, Edward Pytts, was lord of the neighbouring manor of Ivington.

<p>Hereford was an open borough with a wide franchise. Elections were notoriously expensive and sometimes riotous. Of the successful candidates, only Roger Bosworth, a physician, and Thomas Geers were permanently resident in the city; but all the others were Herefordshire gentlemen, though William Gregory, like Geers, was primarily a lawyer. For the Convention, the city returned two moderates, of royalist sympathies, Bosworth and Herbert Westfaling. On the death of the former, the ultra-royalist Sir Henry Lingen was elected.

<p>After the dissolution of the monasteries Leominster became Crown property and various appurtenances were leased out. During Elizabeth’s reign the tithes were leased to <a href="/landingpage/50344" title="Sir James Croft" class="link">Sir James Croft</a>, and the site of Leominster priory to the Coningsby family. In 1554 Leominster had been granted a charter which placed the government of the town in the hands of a self-perpetuating corporation of 25 capital burgesses, who annually chose a bailiff from their number.

<p>The composition of the governing body of Hereford was set down in a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1597. It is evident, however, that the charter merely confirmed a framework in existence from at least the early part of the sixteenth century. The corporation, or common council, was made up of the mayor, six aldermen and 24 councilmen. They had the power to elect ‘famous and discreet’ men as stewards of the city, who, in turn, could appoint deputies ‘learned in the law’. There was also a common or town clerk, appointed for life.

<p>Leland described Leominster as ‘meetly large’, with ‘good building of timber’. The wool produced in the area was of such high quality that it was known as ‘Leominster ore’, and the borough had a prosperous clothmaking industry as well as being, according to the Edwardian chantry commissioners, ‘the greatest market town within the county of Hereford’.