Commons 1690-1715

In 1690 the two outgoing Members for Downton, Sir Charles Raleigh of Rectory House and Maurice Bocland of Standlynch, were returned unopposed. Two other principal families resided in the locality, but neither was in a position to pose any electoral threat, Sir James Ashe, 2nd Bt., being a minor, and Sir Charles Eyre† by now a judge. By 1695, however, this situation had changed. Ashe had reached his majority and was being propelled by his widowed mother in the direction of a parliamentary seat, the family being actively involved, it would appear, in the business of accumulating burgages.

Devizes was still one of the most important centres of the Wiltshire woollen industry, its prosperity impressing Celia Fiennes and Defoe. The ‘clothing interest’ was of considerable significance in elections, both in terms of individual wealth and numbers of voters, a fact that accounts for the presence of London merchants alongside townsmen and country gentlemen as parliamentary candidates. There was also a substantial Dissenting population, with the Baptists particularly prominent, which was the foundation of the Whig faction in the corporation.

A small market town, Cricklade attracted candidates mainly from among the neighbouring gentry, in Gloucestershire as well as Wiltshire, but also from time to time, and especially towards the latter end of this period, some Londoners with local associations.

A number of neighbouring landed families enjoyed influence at Chippenham, among them the Bayntuns of Spye Park, the Longs of Draycot Cerne, the Montagus of Lackham, the Pophams of Littlecote, and to a lesser extent the Spekes of Hazelbury. Sir Edward Hungerford’s* once powerful interest had been divided by 1690, with the sale of Sheldon and Corsham to Richard Kent and Rowden to another branch of the Longs. Of these two, Kent proved the stronger: one of the outgoing Members, he was re-elected unopposed in 1690, along with Alexander Popham of Littlecote.

The ‘burgesses’ of Calne (i.e. members of the corporation), about 34 in number at the beginning of this period, were responsible for ‘electing’ new recruits, who were afterwards sworn by the steward of the crown manor of Ogbourne St. George, and also provided from their own ranks the two guild stewards, usually in rotation. These were the returning officers at parliamentary elections, though they were themselves allowed a vote with the other burgesses at the poll.

Defoe heartily approved of Wiltshire, its agriculture and industries, especially weaving, making it in his view ‘one of the most important counties of England’. The northern and western parts, ‘infinitely populous’ and ‘full of . . . manufactures’, where Dissenting interests were especially well entrenched, pleased him best, but it was in the south-east, at Wilton, that the knights of the shire were elected, and there ‘the clothing trade’ and Nonconformity were much less in evidence. For most of this period the Tories dominated county elections.

Appleby Castle physically dominated the adjoining borough, and the castle interest exerted considerable influence over Appleby elections. The castle had formed part of the extensive Westmorland estates of the Cliffords, lands which in 1676 passed to the earls of Thanet. The Clifford estate also brought with it the hereditary shrievalty of Westmorland, and the substantial interest afforded by this inheritance was wielded in this period by the Tory 6th Earl of Thanet (Thomas Tufton†).

Electoral conflict in Westmorland stemmed from the influence of party which itself had two roots, the national prominence and political identities of the county’s leading political figures and the strong partisan sentiments of many of the other families and individuals possessed of significant electoral interests. The first of these factors was most clearly demonstrated by the disputes between Sir John Lowther, 2nd Bt.

Despite its large and potentially independent electorate, Warwick during the 1690s and 1700s continued to lie under the personal influence of the 5th Lord Brooke (Fulke Greville†). His principal seat was the Castle, which overlooked the borough, and from this vantage point he tended an interest which stemmed jointly from his position as recorder and from his ownership of much property within the town limits, the extent of which is revealed in an estate account for 1686 showing a rent roll totalling £695.

Coventry, as Sir John Perceval (John, Viscount Perceval†) observed on his visit there in 1701, was ‘a very populous and trading place’ in which the manufacture, dressing and marketing of cloth was an economic mainstay. The organization of most of the city’s trades into companies endowed the wide freemen electorate with a semblance of political infrastructure. This impression obtains particular weight from the flow of petitions from these trades to Parliament concerning their various economic grievances.