The county representation remained in the hands of the country gentlemen, who insisted on their independence and vetoed election expenses. There had been no contest since 1722 and the peace of the county was not effectively disturbed in this period. The conduct of Sir Richard Hill in Parliament and in the borough of Shrewsbury exposed him temporarily to the threat of opposition. In October 1795 Isaac Hawkins Browne was reported to be contemplating standing against him; and perhaps it was he who was again referred to in a local anticipation, in January 1796, of the candidature of a ‘gentleman of high character, opulent fortune and the most respectable connexions whose independent spirit will set him far above the suspicion of temporizing, from private fears, upon constitutional questions’. But at the election of 1796 Hill’s opponents knew him ‘to be too strong’ to challenge.
In December 1799, and again in June 1800, it was expected that the other Member Kynaston Powell would establish his claim to a peerage; his ‘great friend’ Sir Corbet Corbet of Adderley and Richard Lyster of Rowton Castle both came forward—the latter obtaining Lord Bradford’s preference—but no vacancy arose.
Number of voters: about 4000