The right of election at Weymouth and Melcombe Regis lay with the freeholders. Since the boroughs had been united, thereby returning four Members, each elector had four votes. The size of the electorate increased rapidly towards the end of Anne’s reign, as party rivalry gave rise to the widespread practice of splitting freeholds. The nature of the franchise militated against the existence of any controlling interest.
The interest at Wareham was divided between the Pitts of Strathfieldsaye, Hampshire, Tories who owned property and several advowsons in the borough, and Thomas Erle of Charborough, a local Whig who had held one of the seats since 1679. In 1690 Erle was returned unopposed, but there was a contest for the second seat between Thomas Skinner†, a Dissenter who had represented the borough in the Convention, and William Okeden, who probably stood on the Pitt interest.
Edward Nicholas, a local Tory landowner who was first returned in 1689, possessed sufficient interest at Shaftesbury to retain one seat throughout the period. The other principal interest in the town belonged to the earls of Shaftesbury, though the 2nd Earl (Anthony Ashley†) was far less active than his son, Lord Ashley (Anthony*), a Country Whig. In 1690 Nicholas had been returned with Sir Matthew Andrews, a Whig standing on his own interest, which was based on possession of a nearby estate, an alliance with the recorder and justified popularity through his frequent ‘charitable acts’.
The franchise at Poole was disputed between the corporation and freemen on the one hand, and the inhabitants paying scot and lot on the other. A double return in 1689 had not produced a clear decision. The elections committee had declared in favour of the candidates elected on the scot-and-lot vote, but the House had disagreed and seated the two returned on the freeman franchise.
The main interest at Lyme Regis lay with two local Whig families, the Henleys, who owned land in and around the town and had established an almost hereditary right to one seat, and the Burridges, a merchant family whose members had frequently filled the mayor’s office and who had become sufficiently influential by 1689 to supply a parliamentary representative. John Burridge I had been returned after a contest in 1689, when a longstanding controversy over the right of election was also revived. Since 1660 returns had been made by the mayor, corporation and freemen.
There was no controlling interest at Dorchester. The Members were usually drawn from a number of local families with property and influence in the borough. Of these the two most prominent on the Tory side were the Napiers of Middlemarsh and Puncknowle, and the Goulds, who had started out in Dorchester itself, where one branch headed by James Gould remained, while the senior branch was seated nearby at Upway. They were supported by the leaders of the Dorset Tories, the two county Members, Thomas Freke I, who had been high sheriff of Dorchester since 1684, and Thomas Strangways I.
The chief interest at Corfe Castle lay with John Bankes, whose family had owned the manor since 1635 and usually controlled one seat. The other had been held since 1681 by Richard Fownes, a Dorset landowner and High Tory. In 1690 Bankes, who had only recently succeeded his father, declined to stand, being unwilling immediately to embark on a political career. This gave an opportunity to William Culliford, a local placeman in the customs service with a longstanding association with the borough.
There was no controlling interest at Bridport although some influence was exercised by the Strangways family of Melbury Sampford, strong Tories in whom the high stewardship of the borough was virtually hereditary. Thomas Strangways I sat for the county throughout the period until his death in 1713, and his son (Thomas II) was not of age until the 1705 election. Consequently the Strangways took little part in Bridport elections during William’s reign.
According to Oldfield, the corporation had arrogated to themselves the right of election, ‘without any opposition from the inhabitants’,Boroughs (1792), ii. 277. and Christchurch was in effect a corporation borough. For most of this period it was controlled by Edward Hooper, M.P. for Christchurch 1735-48 and commissioner of customs 1748-93, who returned his cousin, James Harris, and generally placed the other seat at the disposal of Administration.
According to a survey in the Calcraft papers at Rempstone there were in 1753 about 500 tenements at Wareham, of which more than a hundred belonged to the Draxes, and above 50 to the Pitts. On 19 May 1750 John Pitt wrote to Henry PelhamNewcastle (Clumber) mss. about a project on foot ‘for bringing about a reconciliation between me and Mr. Drax, which ... will secure me the constant nomination of a Member at Wareham’. It obviously failed; only after the election of April 1754 had been declared voidCJ, 19 Dec.