About 1754 the chief interests at Midhurst were in Viscount Montagu and Sir John Peachey, but there was also a considerable independent interest. Montagu in 1752 claimed to own 104 burgages, and to have the support of 41 of the independent burgage holders; and allowed Peachey only 40, with the support of 32 independents.Add. 32726, f. 50.
Montagu was a Roman Catholic, and had put his interest at Henry Pelham’s disposal. He wrote to Newcastle on 6 July 1760:Add. 32908, f. 112.
In 1754 Henry Ingram, 7th Viscount Irwin, owned a majority of the burgages at Horsham and controlled both seats. On the death s.p. in 1778 of Charles, 9th and last Viscount, the property devolved upon his widow, who in 1780 and 1784 placed both seats at the disposal of Administration. In 1786 Charles, 11th Duke of Norfolk, lord of the manor of Horsham, began purchasing burgages with a view to challenging the Irwin interest, which he did at the general election of 1790.
In 1761 Charles Jenkinson classed Lewes with Aldborough and Boroughbridge as boroughs where the Duke of Newcastle returned both Members.Add. 38334, ff. 271-2. Newcastle owned a good deal of property in the town; and his seats at Halland and Bishopstone and Thomas Pelham’s seat at Stanmer, all within ten miles of Lewes, provided custom for local tradesmen. But Lewes was by no means a pocket borough: it had voluntarily placed itself under Pelham patronage, and had to be treated accordingly.
The Dorset family owned a majority of the burgages and had absolute control of the borough.
In 1754 Lionel, 1st Duke of Dorset, conveyed 14 burgages to his younger son, Lord George Sackville; and on his death in 1765 left Lord George the remainder of his holding. Shortly afterwards Lord George wrote to his brother Charles, Lord Middlesex, now 2nd Duke:HMC Stopford-Sackville, i. 46-47.
In 1754 Bramber was controlled by the Gough family of Edgbaston, Warwickshire. They owned 20 burgages, 13 belonged to Lord Windsor, and 3 were independently owned. The Gough interest was leased to Lord Archer; who at the general elections of 1754 and 1761 nominated the candidates, selected by arrangement with Administration, while Sir Henry Gough managed the borough.
In 1754 the chief electoral influence at Chichester was divided between the Duke of Richmond, three miles away at Goodwood, and John Page, M.P. for Chichester since 1741; and as Chichester, being a port, had a number of customs officers, the co-operation of the Treasury was desirable. Richmond’s trustees (the 3rd Duke did not come of age until 1756) and Page managed the borough in close association with the Duke of Newcastle, and usually in harmony with each other.
Arundel was expensive and corrupt; it attracted patrons, yet was not easy to manage. In the earlier part of the century the Lumleys, Earls of Scarbrough, had an interest in the borough; later, Sir George Colebrooke, John Shelley, and Charles Howard, Earl of Surrey, came near being patrons.
Distinct in their parliamentary interests, Steyning and Bramber were territorially interwoven. The franchise had been much disputed in the early 18th century. Oldfield blasted the two boroughs as ‘enveloped in the dark cloud of legal quibble and intricacy ... irregular in their districts, unintelligible in their constitutions, indefinite in their rights, corrupt in the exercise of their functions’.Rep. Hist. v.
After the extension of the franchise to the neighbouring freeholders in 1771, the constituency became a county in miniature vied for by Sussex country gentlemen, and elections were conducted with ‘constitutional decorum’.Oldfield, Boroughs, ii. 160. In 1784 the sitting Members Sir Cecil Bisshop and John Peachey had warded off the challenge of John Clater Aldridge, a friend of the 3rd Duke of Richmond, who was one of Pitt’s cabinet.
George O’ Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, purchased the controlling interest at Midhurst from the trustees of the 7th Viscount Montagu for 40,000 guineas in 1787.W. D. Cooper, Parl. Hist. Suss. 28; Oldfield, Rep. Hist. v. 52. At the next election he returned his brothers. In 1795 he sold out to Robert Smith, afterwards 1st Baron Carrington, who tried but failed in the same year to exchange Midhurst for the borough of Gatton.Camden mss C260, Smith to Camden, 15 (? or 25) Oct.