Commons 1715-1754

The Onslows were the premier Surrey Whig family, with an almost prescriptive claim to one of the county seats. They did not attempt to gain control of the other, having learned by experience that the county ‘would not like it; would deem it an imposition, and taking too much upon ourselves, which is always unpopular’.HMC 14th Rep. IX, 519. Sir Richard Onslow, created Lord Onslow in 1716, ‘used always to talk to the Surrey country gentlemen as if he was nothing, and it was their interest and support only that he relied upon, which took with them extremely’.Ld.

Sudbury was an open borough, but the corporation could influence elections through the power of the mayor, as returning officer, to decide who was entitled to vote. At the accession of George I the chief interest in the borough was that of Sir Hervey Elwes, a neighbouring landowner, whose family had represented it, sometimes filling both seats, in most Parliaments since 1677. But in 1722 Elwes withdrew from politics to repair his shattered finances, leaving the corporation free to dispose of Sudbury to the highest bidder.

Till the beginning of the eighteenth century it was uncertain whether the franchise at Orford was in the corporation, a close body, consisting of a mayor, eight portmen, and twelve capital burgesses, or in the freemen. In 1701 the House of Commons decided in the latter sense, but since the corporation had the right to create new freemen it continued to control the representation.

At Ipswich the two parties were so evenly balanced that the corporation could normally control elections through their power to create new freemen.CJ, xvii. 528. Both seats were filled by government candidates without opposition till 1727, when the sitting Members were re-elected after a contest. At a contested by-election in 1730 a Tory country gentleman was returned, causing the Whig Member for the borough to warn Walpole that it was ‘high time to try to defeat the Tory scheme, which our always forward ones have begun’.Francis Negus to Sir Robt. Walpole, 10 Aug.

Eye was the pocket borough of the Cornwallises, whose estate of Brome was two miles away and who obtained a crown grant of the manor in 1698.W. A. Copinger, Suff. Manors, iii. 259. The only contest occurred in 1747 when John Cornwallis stood unsuccessfully against his brother’s interest.

At the accession of George I Dunwich was a decayed but independent borough, contested by Suffolk landowners, at great expense. In 1721 Sir George Downing, who had lost his seat in 1715 but recovered it in 1722, estimated that not ‘less than £5,000 would carry it for the person who should be his partner’; one of the sitting Members, Charles Long, was said to be prepared to pay the same sum rather than lose the seat, and the other, Sir Robert Rich, to be offering £50 a vote.A. Bence to Ld. Strafford, 5 Dec. 1721, Add. 22248, f. 131.

From 1705 to 1747 the representation of Bury was almost monopolized by its hereditary high steward, John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, seated at Ickworth, three miles from the borough, which he had represented from 1694 till he was raised to the peerage in 1703. With one exception, the Members during this period consisted of his sons, his brother-in-law, his wife’s cousin, and the recorder, whose father had married a Hervey.

Aldeburgh was dependent on its fishing and shipbuilding industries. Elections were controlled by the corporation, through their right of creating freemen. The Members returned were wealthy strangers, who were expected to spend money on the borough, and government nominees, to secure Customs and Admiralty patronage.

In Suffolk the general meeting of the nobility, gentry, and freeholders usually chose two Tories without opposition. The only contest occurred in 1727, when the local Whigs, headed by the Duke of Grafton, the Earl of Bristol, and Lord Cornwallis, put up a candidate against the sitting Tory Members, who were re-elected.West Stow & Woodwell Parish Registers 1518-1850 (1903), p. 233. In 1747 the Whigs, meeting separately from the Tories, put up two candidates, who withdrew before the poll.Grafton to Newcastle, 20, 30 June, 2 July 1747, Add. 32711, ff.

The chief interests in Tamworth at George I’s accession were those of Thomas Willoughby, 1st Lord Middleton, high steward of Tamworth, whose estate of Middleton was 4½ miles from the borough; of Baroness Ferrers, the owner of Tamworth Castle, who in 1716 married James, Lord Compton, later 5th Earl of Northampton; and of the 2nd Viscount Weymouth, aged 4, owner of Drayton manor, two miles from Tamworth.