Surrey

Guildford, a market town situated near the River Wey, in the west of the county on the main London to Southampton road, was described in 1832 as a ‘well conditioned, wealthy place’. Seven years earlier William Cobbett† had declared it to be ‘the prettiest, and taken altogether, the most agreeable and happy looking’ of all the towns he had visited during his extensive travels. There were two ‘large coach manufactories’ and an iron foundry in the town, corn and paper mills were located nearby on the river and the retail trade was ‘very extensive’. Ibid. xl.

Reigate, a ‘small but remarkably neat’ market town, was situated on a branch of the River Mole, in the east of county, on the London to Brighton road. Apart from its ‘thoroughfare importance’, it was ‘a place of but little trade’ and there were ‘no manufactures’. However, it was reported in 1831 that the town contained a disproportionately large number of gentlemen’s residences. Ibid. 35-37; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1832-4), 990, 991. The borough covered only a small area, about 65 acres, at the centre of the parish, the remainder of which was known as ‘the foreign’.

Bletchingley, a former market town overlooking the South Downs, 11 miles from Croydon, in the east of the county, owed ‘almost its entire consequence’ by this period to the fact that it returned Members to Parliament. The borough covered only a small area (about 50 acres) of the parish. It was reported in 1831 that there had been no contested election in living memory and that no records survived, but it was thought there were ‘about 70’ burgage properties, conferring the right to vote.

Haslemere was an insignificant market town in the west of the county, 12 miles south-west of Guildford. The borough was wholly contained within but comprised ‘only part of’ the parish, and included ‘almost the whole’ of the town. The franchise was vested in ‘resident freeholders of messuages, lands and tenements’, but the estimate of 130 electors made in the official return of 1831 was certainly greatly exaggerated. William Lowther†, 1st earl of Lonsdale, was the Tory patron, and many of the nominal electors were his friends and dependants, to whom he had conveyed ‘parchment votes’.

Gatton, which was situated two miles north of Reigate in the east of the county, had once been ‘a considerable town’, but by the 1830s it was ‘an insignificant village’. The borough was coextensive with the parish. Political control was firmly in the hands of Sir Mark Wood† of Gatton Park, the lord of the manor since 1801, who appointed the constable, the returning officer for parliamentary elections.