Cromartyshire was controlled by the earls of Cromarty, who held the hereditary sheriffdom of the county. On 24 Jan. 1715 Lord Elibank wrote to the 2nd Earl of Cromarty:
The chief interest in Clackmannanshire was that of William Dalrymple, its hereditary sheriff. The interest of the Erskines, earls of Mar, was temporarily eclipsed by the attainder of Lord Mar after the Fifteen. Sir John Shaw, a government supporter, who held the estate of Sauchie in the county, was returned in 1722, but was defeated in 1734 by James Erskine, Mar’s brother, who had joined forces with the Squadrone and was supported by the Dalrymples.Stair Annals, ii.
The chief interest in Caithness-shire was in the Sinclairs of Ulbster, who purchased the hereditary sheriffdom of the county from the Earl of Breadalbane c.1715.CJ, xxi. 189. At the 1715 election, Sir James Sinclair of Dunbeath, who had represented Caithness-shire in the last Parliament of Scotland, stood, but John Sinclair of Ulbster, the sheriff, returned Sir Robert Gordon.
Bute was controlled by the earls of Bute, its hereditary sheriffs, whose nominees were invariably returned without a contest.
Berwickshire was dominated by the Hume Campbells, earls of Marchmont, sheriffs of the county during pleasure. From 1708 to 1734 they returned the 1st Earl’s son-in-law, George Baillie. In 1734 the 2nd Earl of Marchmont, now in opposition, returned his younger son, Alexander Hume Campbell, as the Squadrone candidate against a government supporter, who petitioned unsuccessfully.
The chief Banffshire parliamentary families were the Abercrombys, the Duffs, and the Ogilvies. From 1708 to 1727 the seat was held by Alexander Abercromby, the paid supporter of successive Governments, who wrote of himself in 1713 as having been ‘unanimously chosen, which I flatter myself I shall always be in this shire while I think it convenient or desirable’.HMC Portland, x. 305. In 1727 Abercromby was succeeded by William Duff of Braco, who in 1734 put up his brother-in-law, James Abercromby, the son of the previous Member.
The chief interests in Ayrshire were in the Campbells, earls of Loudoun, its hereditary sheriffs, and the Montgomeries, earls of Eglintoun. From 1710 to 1727 the seat was held by John Montgomerie, first cousin of the 9th Earl of Eglintoun, and from 1727 to 1741 by James Campbell, whose father was the 2nd Earl of Loudoun and whose mother was the daughter of the 7th Earl of Eglintoun.
Argyllshire was dominated by the dukes of Argyll, its hereditary sheriffs, who returned members of the Campbell clan, except in 1742,when the 2nd Duke nominated his nephew, Stuart Mackenzie.
Under George I Aberdeenshire was represented successively by two local landowners, Sir Alexander Cumming, a Tory, and Sir Archibald Grant, a Whig, who went into opposition. Before the general election of 1727 Walpole was informed that ‘the bulk of the Whig interest there’ was in the various branches of the Forbes family, of whom ‘the most considerable for his estate’ was Sir Arthur Forbes, then a minor.Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss 68. Grant was re-elected after a contest, defeating Alexander Fraser, the brother-in-law of Lord Ilay, Walpole’s election manager for Scotland.
This seat depended on the power of the corporation of New Radnor to create freemen in the capital borough, and on that of the steward of the King’s manors to create freemen, as well non-resident as resident, in three of the contributory boroughs, Rhayader, Knighton and Knucklas.
