Commons 1715-1754

From 1705 to 1734 Breconshire returned successively two local Tory country gentlemen, Sir Edward Williams of Gwernyfed and William Gwyn Vaughan of Trebarried. In December 1733 a report on the county was sent to Walpole, stating that there were 1,200 freeholders, of whom Roger Jones of Buckland, who had stood against Vaughan unsuccessfully in 1722, could poll 400; while 150 each were at the command of John Jeffreys of the Priory and of Sir David Williams of Gwernyfed. According to the report,

Beaumaris was controlled by the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, Tories, who under George I returned Henry Bertie, the 4th Lord Bulkeley’s brother-in-law, defeating William Bodvell, a Whig, in 1722. After Bodvell’s defeat a petition was presented reviving the claim of the borough of Newborough to share in the representation, but no decision was reached on it.

At George I’s accession Anglesey was dominated by the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, a Tory family, whose tenure of the seat had been challenged in Anne’s reign by the local Whigs under Owen Meyrick of Bodorgan. In 1715 Lord Bulkeley, to avoid the trouble and expense of a contest, came to an agreement with Meyrick, under which Meyrick was returned unopposed for the county, on an undertaking to resign at Lord Bulkeley’s request. But in 1722, when Lord Bulkeley decided to stand again, Meyrick refused to honour his pledge and was defeated after a bitter and expensive contest.

Winchelsea was a Treasury borough which by 1715 had been allowed to fall under the control of two wealthy business men, George Dodington and Robert Bristow. On Dodington’s death his interest passed to his nephew, George Bubb Dodington, who from 1722 chose to sit for Bridgwater, returning ministerial nominees till 1734, when he brought in his brother-in-law E. H. Beaghan.

In practice the right of election at Seaford, a decayed port, was confined to inhabitants paying scot and lot,T. Hurdis to Newcastle, 24 June 1747, Add. 32711, f. 499. though this was not confirmed by the House of Commons till 1761. From 1715 Members were returned on the recommendation of the Duke of Newcastle, whose estate of Bishopstone adjoined the town and who controlled the local Treasury patronage. In 1722 the voters, numbering 51, signed a letter to Sir William Gage and Sir Philip Yorke, stating that:

The chief interests at Sandwich were those of the Administration, based on admiralty and customs patronage, and of the Oxendens, a neighbouring Whig family, who held one seat from 1713 to 1754. The other seat was usually filled by the secretary to the Admiralty.

Rye was managed by giving the corporation posts in the customs service, with which this stagnant port was well provided, having in 1729 a collector, a deputy collector, and twenty other officers.S. H. Nulle, The Duke of Newcastle, 40 n. 2. Under George I and George II the patronage was administered through Sir John Norris and Phillips Gybbon, who had been adopted by the corporation as their patrons, sharing the representation till their deaths in 1749 and 1762.

Under George I the New Romney corporation returned neighbouring Whig landowners without opposition. The first contest occurred in 1727, when one of the late Members, David Papillon, partnered by John Essington, defeated the other, Sir Robert Furnese, partnered by Sir Robert Austen, only to be unseated in favour of their opponents by the House of Commons on a petition alleging that the mayor, John Coates, as returning officer had

Hythe was controlled by the Duke of Dorset, lord warden of the Cinque Ports, who used the patronage of that office and of the Treasury to support his private interest.Namier & Brooke, i. 447. His son, the second Duke, wrote of Hythe to the Duke of Grafton in 1767:

My father for many years contested it while parties ran high, with the Tories of that place; he by degree established his interest in it, and the Whigs prevailed.Germain mss.

Under George I and George II Hastings was managed for the Government by the Duke of Newcastle, who used the Treasury patronage to support his private interest, as the owner of the castle, lordship, and rape of Hastings. From 1733 he employed as his local manager an influential member of the corporation, John Collier, who converted Hastings into a Treasury borough, where Newcastle nominated both Members so long as he remained in office.