Co. Carlow

<p>Just before the Union, Lord Charleville bought control of this close corporation borough, in which he owned no other property, from <a href="/landingpage/61975" title="William Burton" class="involume">William Burton</a><fn><em>Life of Grattan</em>, v. 188; <em>Report on Mun. Corp.</em> [<em>I</em>], H.C. 1835, xxvii, app. pt. 1, p. 167.</fn> and returned his step-brothers, the Pritties, before offering the seat to government unconditionally in June 1801.

<p>Carlow, a county town situated on the River Barrow at a point ‘navigable for barges’, was a ‘considerable mart for agricultural produce’, from which ‘vast quantities of corn and butter’ were ‘transmitted to Waterford for exportation’. Charles William Bury, 1st earl of Charleville, retained complete control over the representation and management of its self-elected Protestant corporation of 13 burgesses, in whom the right of voting had been ‘exclusively vested’ by royal charter, 24 Dec. 1674.