Essex

A corporation borough long controlled by the Treasury through the Customs House and Post Office patronage, Harwich characteristically returned two superannuated secretaries of the Treasury in 1790: one of them, John Robinson, having represented the borough since 1774, was by now patron and although the Treasury regarded the borough as ‘open’, no difficulty was made for him. Early in 1796 Robinson, who had not found it possible to satisfy applications for patronage, was obliged to quell a ‘schism’, as he called it, at Harwich.

‘Colchester without a contested election could hardly be Colchester in Essex’: only one election (1802) and two by-elections (1812, 1817) did not proceed to a contest in this period. With less than half of the large electorate resident in Colchester, such contests proved discouragingly expensive, because of the cost of transporting voters rather than because of venality.

In 1715 the sitting Members for Maldon were two Tory lawyers, both local men: Thomas Bramston, whose family held the high stewardship of the borough, and John Comyns, who had sat for it in every Parliament but one in the previous reign. Both were re-elected after a contest but on petition the House of Commons unseated Comyns ‘for want of a qualification’, awarding the seat to one of the defeated Whig candidates, Samuel Tufnell.

The government interest at Harwich was based on the officers of the local customs and of the Harwich packet boats, the latter appointed by the Post Office. By giving these posts to members of the corporation the Government were usually able to secure the return of supporters. In 1715 the corporation returned two Whigs, Sir Philip Parker, a neighbouring landowner, and Thomas Heath, a London merchant, with no local connexions, who in 1717 were granted jointly a 31-year lease of the crown property in the town.Cal. Treas. Bks. xxxi.

Colchester was an open, corrupt, and expensive borough, usually represented by wealthy London merchants who had purchased Essex estates. Five of them— the two Rebows, Du Cane, Houblon and Olmius— were of Flemish or Dutch descent. Elections turned largely on the mayor, who was the returning officer, and without whose consent no new freemen could be created. Up to 1728 the Whigs monopolized the mayoralty and the representation of the borough. From 1728 to 1740 the Tories held the mayoralty, creating 83 freemen in 1728 and more in 1729.T. Cromwell, Hist. Colchester, ii.

Under the charter of 1554 the corporation of Maldon, which controlled the roll of freemen, consisted of two bailiffs, who acted as returning officers, six aldermen, and 18 capital burgesses. At the elections ‘the town clerk calls every freeman by his name, the bailiffs, aldermen, etc. and all the town dwellers... and then the gentlemen of the country, clergymen, and others’. No townsman presumed to stand in this period, and the electorate displayed a marked penchant for lawyers from the Essex gentry families.

At Harwich the franchise was limited to the corporation, consisting of eight aldermen and 24 ‘capital burgesses’. A contemporary observer noted that the extremes of wealth and poverty were both absent from the town. This modest prosperity was founded on the dockyard and the packet station; hence in quiet times the corporation was usually content for the Government to nominate one Member.

Within a notoriously Puritan county, Colchester had a reputation for political and religious turbulence. As a port close to the Netherlands, its sizeable nonconformist element was largely the result of an influx of Dutch weavers from the 16th century onwards. These had played an important part in developing the cloth industry as manufacturers of Colchester bays and says, but a strong rivalry still existed between them and the native clothiers. The town had been badly damaged by the siege of 1648.

Colchester received a charter of confirmation in 1559. The Elizabethan electorate was composed of the bailiffs, aldermen and common council. The office of recorder was held by local men until 1579, when it became an honorary office held by Sir Francis Walsingham until 1589, Sir Thomas Heneage until 1595, and Sir Robert Cecil until the end of the reign.

During the Elizabethan period Maldon was governed by two bailiffs, a recorder, a town clerk, six aldermen and eighteen head-burgesses. There was also an honorary office of high recorder, held by the Earl of Leicester from about 1565 until his death and afterwards by the Earl of Essex. The borough chamberlain’s accounts for 1598 show that it was intended to give Essex a gift of wine that year, but for some reason not ascertained, but which it would be interesting to know, the entry was deleted.