Essex

<p>Described even by those who lived nearby as ‘a remote and almost forgotten corner of the kingdom’, Maldon was a small market town with some maritime trade, principally the importing of coal. One of the most prominent merchants involved in this trade, William Coe, was a Congregationalist who in 1696 leased property for a meeting house, and whose family championed the strong Dissenting presence in the town.

<p>‘A town of hurry and business, not much of gaiety and pleasure’, Harwich was noticeably busier during war than peace. Its deep harbour, protected by Landguard Fort, made it ideal for shipbuilding and the transport of passengers and mail to and from the Continent. Considerable trade for the 22 inns in Harwich came from the soldiers and sailors stationed there, and from passengers detained by adverse winds.

<p>Colchester experienced troubled times under the later Stuarts, both politically and economically. The population of the town itself (enough to rank it as one of the ten largest in the country), together with that of its hinterland, was mostly employed in the woollen industry. The area was still in 1720 ‘the most famous place in England for making of bays and says’, but this manufacturing base was in a state of gradual decline, and vulnerable to crises from the mid-1690s through to the disruption to its main market caused by the Spanish war in Anne’s reign.

<p>Harwich was controlled by the Treasury, operating through the Customs House (in 1763 ten of its officers were in the corporation) and the Post Office, operating through the Harwich packet boats (whose agent and four captains were generally elected into the corporation).

<p>In 1754 the Government interest at Maldon seemed firmly established. Maldon being a port, there were places in the customs to be given to members of the corporation; strangers picked by the Government were introduced into the corporation; and honorary freemen were made at election time, connected with the candidates or the Government, but not necessarily with the borough or county. Still, a freeman borough could never be reduced to absolute dependence upon the Treasury; and nothing could be done without money.

<p>Colchester had a large electorate and was noted for frequent and expensive contests. A large proportion of the freemen were non-resident: of the 1280 who voted in 1788, 528 came from Colchester, 227 from London, and 525 from other places. The situation at Colchester in 1754 was unusual since, as a result of legal proceedings taken after the election of 1741, the corporation had been dissolved. The three candidates in 1754 were all local men, each standing on a separate interest, and each pledged to restore the town’s charter.

<p>The majority of the corporation of Maldon had been ousted by quo warranto in the 1760s and the charter of the borough thereby undermined; the electorate diminished steadily from about 800 in 1768 to about 150 in 1790. The sheriff of Essex acted as returning officer, a symbol of the success of the neighbouring country gentlemen in their endeavours, since 1754, to make Maldon ‘a county, not a borough interest’.<fn>PRO 30/8/181, f. 112; Add. 38739, f. 171; Essex RO, Strutt mss micro. T/B 251, Strutt to Addington, 27 July 1802.