Bedfordshire

<p>As in the county the Whig and Tory strengths in Bedford were about equal. The recorder was Lord Bruce, a Tory, appointed in 1711, who sold his Ampthill property, a few miles from the borough, to the Duke of Bedford in 1730.<fn><em>VCH Beds.</em> iii. 271.</fn> The Dukes of Bedford at Woburn exerted a strong influence from 1726, mainly in support of anti-government candidates. Elections seem to have been managed by the local landowners, from whose ranks most of the ten Members were drawn, two only being strangers. With a wide franchise, corruption was rife.

<p>Bedford was a borough by prescription, in which the mayor and the two bailiffs acted as returning officers. The corporation had the right to create freemen. Several aristocratic families enjoyed an interest, notably the Wentworths, until the death of the Earl of Cleveland in 1667, the St. Johns of Bletso, and towards the end of the period the Bruces. In the contest between the latter families the recordership was the principal prize at stake. There is no sign of Russell influence during the period.

<p>A Saxon foundation sited at one of the main crossing points on the upper Ouse, Bedford was sufficiently wealthy to build a stone bridge in the twelfth century, paid the surprisingly large sum of &pound;40 for its fee-farm from 1190, and returned two Members to Parliament from 1295. The fee-farm was reduced in 1440 on the ground that a new bridge five miles down river at Great Barford had affected its road traffic, but the town revived under the Tudors, and had a population of about 1,500 by 1603.<fn>J. Godber, <em>Hist. Beds</em>.

<p>Bedford was a thriving and expanding market town and social centre, with a steady trade in corn, timber and coals by the River Ouse, and small manufactures of lace and straw plat.<fn><em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1830), 11; <em>PP</em> (1831-2), xxxviii. 25; (1835), xxvi. 2123.</fn> The corporation consisted of a mayor, two bailiffs, an indefinite number of aldermen (that is, burgesses who had served as mayor, and totalling about 13 in this period) and 13 common councilmen.