Commons 1715-1754

The chief interests at Knaresborough were in two neighbouring landowners, Lord Burlington of Bolton Abbey, hereditary constable of Knaresborough castle, a Whig, who in 1715 appointed the steward of Knaresborough,T. Lawson-Tancred, Recs. of a Yorks. Manor 245. and Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven, a Tory, whose family had frequently sat for the borough. In 1715 Slingsby, having been returned at a by-election in 1714, stood unsuccessfully with another Tory against two Whigs, Henry Coote and Robert Hitch.

At George I’s accession, the chief interests at Hull were in the sitting Whig Members, Sir William St. Quintin, an East Riding baronet, and William Maister, a Hull merchant, who had shared the representation continuously since the reign of William III. They were supported by the Government, who had an interest based on the officers of the garrison, the customs, and Trinity House, and by the corporation, who could influence elections through the mayor as returning officer and the power of creating freemen.

Hedon, a venal borough, was controlled for many years by William Pulteney, who had inherited the interest there of Henry Guy, M.P. Hedon 1679-95 and 1702-5. His nominees were unopposed till 1741, when two Walpole Whigs, Luke Robinson and Francis Chute, captured both seats, which Pulteney recovered on an undefended petition for bribery after Walpole’s fall.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century two rival local families, the Wilkinsons and the Stapyltons, owned most of the burgages at Boroughbridge. Its neighbour, Aldborough, was controlled by John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, who bought the manor of Aldborough in 1701. After the Duke’s death in 1711 his heir, Thomas Pelham, bought some Boroughbridge burgages and allied himself with the Wilkinsons to gain joint control of that borough. In 1715 the combined Pelham-Wilkinson interests won both seats, ousting the Stapyltons, who gave up the struggle after a further defeat in 1718.

For nearly a century the representation of Beverley was practically monopolized by two neighbouring families, the Wartons and the Hothams. When Sir Michael Warton, the last of his line, retired in 1722, his interest passed to his nephews and coheirs, Michael Newton, an opposition Whig, M.P. Beverley 1722-7, and Charles Pelham, a Tory, who sat for the borough 1727-34 and 1738-54.

See BOROUGHBRIDGE below

From 1710 to 1727 both Yorkshire seats were held by Tories, Lord Downe and Sir Arthur Kaye, since 1713 without a contest. At a by-election caused by Kaye’s death in 1726, his nephew, the Tory candidate, was defeated by Cholmley Turner, a Whig, largely owing to the influence of Sir Thomas Wentworth, who had recently succeeded to the vast Wentworth estates in Yorkshire.

Worcester was an independent borough. The main influence lay with the mayor, as returning officer, and the corporation, through their power of creating honorary freemen. All the Members returned came from city or neighbouring families, except Richard Lockwood, a London merchant, and Sir Henry Harpur, a Derbyshire baronet.

The representation of Evesham was practically monopolized by two Whig families, the Rudges, who owned the manor of Evesham, and the Rushouts, whose seat at Northwick was not far away. Only in 1734 did William Taylor, the recorder of the borough and a Tory, succeed in ousting Rudge. Elections there were expensive: in 1753 Sir John Rushout estimated that the forthcoming contest would cost him not less than £4,000.15 Sept. 1753, Sir Dudley Ryder’s diary, Harrowby mss.

In 1715 the right of election at Droitwich was in the freemen who owned a share in an ancient salt pit, called the corporation salt springs, which had dried up by 1725.