Nottinghamshire

<p>In 1754 East Retford was under the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle. It was managed by John White, M.P. for the borough since 1733, a close friend of Newcastle, who had some interest of his own. Newcastle’s hold on the borough was considered sure, and there was no opposition in 1754 or 1761.</p><p>But Newcastle’s position could not be taken for granted. His control of the corporation had been secured largely through the patronage of the Crown, and care was taken to keep the principal citizens in good humour.

<p>The chief interest in 1754 was in the Duke of Newcastle, lord of the manor of Newark. Next came that of the Sutton family which, through the marriage to the 3rd Duke of Rutland of the daughter and heir of the last Lord Lexinton, passed to <a href="/landingpage/58399" title="Lord Robert Manners Sutton" class="link">Lord Robert Manners Sutton</a>.

<p>Local landowners had a good deal of influence in Nottingham, particularly the Duke of Newcastle, leader of the Whigs, and Lord Middleton, leader of the Tories. The Dissenters were strong in the town, and in the second half of the eighteenth century controlled the corporation (to whose support the Howes owed their influence). Abel Smith, the leading local banker, had a strong interest, based on his ability to grant credit to the small manufacturers who formed a fair proportion of the voters.

<p>Situated on the River Idle in the north-eastern Nottinghamshire hundred of Bassetlaw, 32 miles from Nottingham, East Retford was an important market town and administrative centre, whose suburbs stretched into the neighbouring parishes of West Retford, Clarborough and Ordsall, though these lay outside the corporation&#8217;s jurisdiction.

<p>Situated in south Nottinghamshire, a mile north of the river Trent, Nottingham was dominated by its castle perched on a rock.<fn> A. Henstock, ‘Changing Fabric of the Town, 1550-1750’, in <em>Centenary Hist. of Nottingham</em> ed. J. Beckett, 107.</fn> During the late Elizabethan period the borough grew rapidly, so that by the beginning of the seventeenth century it was a medium-sized town of about 3,500 people, but thereafter successive outbreaks of plague served to halt the population increase.<fn> S.

<p>East Retford, a thriving and genteel market town in the hundred of Bassetlaw, on the border with Yorkshire, boasted hat and sailcloth manufacturing, but had been superseded by Worksop in the barley trade.<fn> <em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1822-3), 344; S. Lewis, <em>Top. Dict. of England</em> (1844), iii. 632; J.S.

<p>Nottingham, the county town, was a notable centre of the expanding hosiery industry, especially in silk, cotton, bobbin-net and lace manufacturing, and benefited from several municipal improvements in the early nineteenth century.<fn> <em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1822-3), 330-1; S. Lewis, <em>Top. Dict. of England</em> (1844), iii.

<p>Newark was a thriving market town on the Trent, 18 miles north-east of Nottingham and close to the border with Lincolnshire. Its staple industries of brewing and malting were supplemented in this period by recently introduced cotton manufacturing.<fn><em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1822-3), 327; R. Vernon, <em>Newark before Victoria</em>, 42-45.<em> </em></fn> The corporation consisted of a mayor (the returning officer) and 12 other aldermen, chosen by themselves from the inhabitants; there were no freemen.