Gatton was a pocket borough. Its parliamentary representation was divided between the owners of the manor of Gatton, who appointed the returning officer, and those of Upper Gatton, each nominating one Member. The manor of Gatton was owned by the Newland family till 1751, when it was sold to James Colebrooke for £23,000. Upper Gatton was owned by the Docminiques till 1745, when it passed by inheritance to Paul Humphrey, who left it to his sister, the wife of the Rev. John Tattersall.
In 1715 the chief interests in Bletchingley were those of William Clayton, the lord of the manor, and George Evelyn, who owned the adjacent manor of Godstone. After Evelyn’s death, leaving no issue male, in 1724 his brother was defeated by a government candidate, H. A. Herbert, who was succeeded in 1727 by another, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, both presumably brought in on the Clayton interest. In 1734 Clayton’s son, Kenrick, hitherto under age, was returned with his father, on whose death in 1744 the vacancy was filled by Kenrick’s younger brother.
Under a charter of 1551 the borough of Southwark was a mere dependency of London, although the Surrey justices exercised a concurrent jurisdiction. The corporation appointed the aldermen of Bridge Without, the steward, who kept the court of record, and the bailiff, who acted as returning officer. But public order was always at risk in so densely populated an area, and the militia was entrusted to the lord lieutenant of Middlesex. The parish of St.
At the Restoration the principal manor of Reigate was held in moieties by the regicide Viscount Monson and the scarcely less enthusiastic republican John Goodwin. The bailiff, who acted as returning officer, was chosen in their court leet. Other important property interests were in the hands of the royalist conspirator John Mordaunt, John Hele of Flanchford, and Roger James, who owned the Rectory manor. Most of the indentures bear the names and signatures of between 40 and 50 ‘burgesses’.
The Mores of Loseley were lords of the manor of Haslemere, and their bailiff acted as returning officer. Sir William More was under age at the first two elections of the period, and the family interest was managed by his uncle James Gresham, who lived outside the borough but within the tithing of Haslemere. In 1660 he stood as a Royalist with Roger Heath of Shalford, the recorder of Guildford, and obtained from the bailiff Yalden an indenture duly signed and sealed, and witnessed by seven other ‘burgesses’.
The ‘approved men’ or corporation of Guildford, from whom the mayor was elected, consisted of eight aldermen and up to 20 ‘bailiffs’, or common councilmen. The franchise was not determined until the end of the period, and the electors are variously described; but the dominant Onslow interest was never shaken. In 1660 Sir Richard Onslow and his son Arthur were declared elected by the mayor, aldermen, and other ‘burgesses’, 37 in number, the poll having been apparently postponed as an insurance policy against defeat in the county election.
Gatton, already a classic case of a ‘pocket borough’, was controlled by Thomas Turgis, the son of a London Grocer, who bought the manor in 1654 and sat for the constituency in 13 consecutive Parliaments. His cautiously country politics harmonized with those of the owners of Upper Gatton, which passed from the Oldfield family to the Thompsons during this period. The constable of the parish acted as returning officer, and the indentures were signed by some 15 or 20 ‘inhabitants’ and ‘burgesses’, many of them local gentlemen, others imported from London for the occasion.
From 1643 to 1677 the 2nd Earl of Peterborough was lord of the manor of Bletchingley, but he appears to have exerted little or no influence on the elections. All the Members represented local territorial interests, and three of them were past or present inhabitants of the parish. At the general election of 1660 the two representatives of the borough in the Long Parliament, Sir John Evelyn of Godstone and Edward Bysshe of Burstow, were opposed by John Goodwin, a resident, and Edmund Hoskins of Oxted, who had sat for Bletchingley in 1659.
Southwark, noted in this period for its playhouses and brothels, had a special relationship with the city of London, which appointed its steward and bailiff. In 1571 the instructions to hold the election were sent to Southwark by the common council of the city, and in 1584 the London recorder was present at the election. The right to vote at Southwark was vested in the inhabitants, 20 of whom signed the 1559 return, and 22 that of 1584.
The Howards of Effingham owned a moiety of the manor of Reigate and leased the other from the earls of Derby. Election returns were made in the name of the burgesses (usually about a dozen), and the other inhabitants.VCH Surr. iii. 231-7; C219/29/144.