Cinque Port

In 1754 the chief interest was acknowledged to be in the Duke of Dorset, part personal and part derived from his office of lord warden of the Cinque Ports. ‘The Duke of Dorset has long cultivated an interest in the borough of Hythe’, wrote Lord George Sackville to Charles Jenkinson, 14 June 1763,Add. 38200, f. 358. ‘and has always been indulged by the lords of the Treasury in having his recommendations accepted for the few offices in that port.’ So long as this continued the Dorset interest was supreme.

Government had considerable interest through the customs, the packet service, and the victualling office; and throughout this period at least one seat was always filled by a Government candidate. The lord warden claimed an interest, but it was based mainly on tradition and goodwill: he could not compete with Government as regards patronage. Sir Henry Erskine told Bute in February 1761 that the Duke of Dorset’s interest was ‘chiefly personal and natural, not consequential to his being warden’;But mss. and Lord North in 1784 failed to carry his candidates against Government.