in the freemen
Number of voters: 37 in 1784 rising to 52 in 1831
| Date | Candidate | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| 1801 | WALTER JONES | |
| 26 July 1802 | WALTER JONES | |
| 13 Dec. 1806 | SIR GEORGE FITZGERALD HILL, Bt. | |
| 4 Feb. 1807 | WALTER JONES vice Hill, chose to sit for Londonderry | |
| 16 May 1807 | WALTER JONES | |
| 26 June 1809 | JOHN POO BERESFORD vice Jones, vacated his seat | |
| 17 Oct. 1812 | LORD GEORGE THOMAS BERESFORD | |
| 10 June 1814 | SIR JOHN POO BERESFORD vice Beresford, vacated his seat | |
| 30 June 1818 | SIR JOHN POO BERESFORD |
Coleraine was the property of the London Society, whose agent was John Claudius Beresford, and by 1799 his cousin Lord Waterford had ‘purchased’ the corporation, possibly by the admission of 35 select freemen in 1797, the last to be admitted before 1830.1Sheffield mss, Foster to Sheffield, 8 Dec. 1799; Parl Rep. [I], H. C. 1831-2 (519), xliii. 33-34. Consequently the Beresfords, headed by Henry, 2nd Marquess of Waterford, controlled the borough and returned different members of the family to suit their convenience. Thus Hill replaced Jones in 1806 because he was thought to be in danger of a contest at Londonderry, while Lord George Beresford came in in 1812 to avoid a contest for the county. The Beresfords’ support for each administration in turn strengthened their hand, for as Lord Howick put it apropos of Lord Waterford, 4 Dec. 1806, ‘if not assisted by government ... it is very doubtful whether he might not have been beaten at Coleraine’.2Grey mss, Howick to Bedford (copy), 4 Dec. 1806.