James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale, who entered into his inheritance in 1789, dominated Lauder and was strongly placed at Dunbar. He decided to replace William Fullarton, the sitting Member returned on his family interest, with his brother Thomas Maitland. Fullarton refused to be diverted elsewhere and defended his seat, in which he was encouraged by Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho, a former Member, who controlled Haddington. Elcho, ambitious for place or peerage promotion, had ceased to act with opposition and, undeterred by Fullarton’s opposition politics, was inclined henceforward to act with Henry Dundas. In order to gain North Berwick, where Sir Hew Dalrymple had the chief interest, Lauderdale came to a secret agreement with Dalrymple whereby, if he backed Thomas Maitland in 1790, he would name the Member at the next election (his son and heir Hew wished to be in Parliament). Maitland was therefore sure of Lauder and North Berwick, and Fullarton of Haddington and of Jedburgh, despite an attempt by Sir Gilbert Elliot to secure the latter for Maitland. A severe struggle ensued for Dunbar. Maitland secured the delegate by the provost’s casting vote after blatant corruption on both sides and was returned. Fullarton, in a petition, exposed the corruption and the secret agreement between Lauderdale and Dalrymple and ‘brought to town by summons an astonishing number of people of fashion to prove bribery against Maitland’s agents, as the election was over before he came home’ reported James Grant, ‘but the sitting Member and petitioner are both great patriots, so you may believe the good politicians look on very quietly and are not anxious about the event, though it may be taken into their consideration that Fullarton once voted with them and got a regiment, and that Maitland started into opposition’. On 23 Mar. 1791 the committee decided in Maitland’s favour and found Fullarton’s petition ‘vexatious’.
In the Haddingtonshire by-election of 1795 Dalrymple’s son Hew was opposed by Robert Baird of Newbyth. The impasse was resolved by Henry Dundas, who induced Baird to give up the county and stand for the burghs, with Dalrymple’s support, at the next election. Lauderdale accepted Baird as Dalrymple’s nominee in accordance with their agreement, though Dalrymple believed he would have preferred to buy the seat for his brother. On 1 Nov. 1795 Dundas obtained Elcho’s interest as well, and although there was a ‘feeble’ opposition at Haddington, Baird was returned unopposed in 1796.
Elcho remained Lauderdale’s competitor for control of the burghs. In 1800 he claimed that Haddington and Jedburgh were ‘secure’, but his hold on the latter was tenuous.
On the change of ministry in 1806, Sir Hew accommodated the Grenville administration by getting his brother to make way for the lord advocate, whose claims he preferred to those of Maj. Ramsay, brother of William Maule. It was understood that if the lord advocate stood again at the general election he would be Lauderdale’s nominee, and Lauderdale engaged to return Lord Minto’s heir if Erskine found a seat elsewhere, but it was William Lamb whom Lauderdale sponsored. Lamb was described by William Adam as the ‘virtual representative’ of Lauderdale’s heir, who was ineligible for the seat. So confident of his strength was Lauderdale that he maintained that he could, if necessary, substitute Lord William Russell for Lamb, once the delegates had been elected. Elcho gave up an intention of starting his son-in-law Edward Richard Stewart while Francis Sitwell, a Pittite who relied on Elcho’s support, withdrew. All that happened was that the provost of Haddington (in Elcho’s interest) protested to government at the attempts made in Lauderdale’s name to undermine that burgh.
In 1807 Elcho had the support of the Portland ministry when he put up Col. Clinton, but he was unable to extend his interest beyond Haddington and Jedburgh. Sir Hew returned his brother’s brother-in-law, Sir George Warrender of Lochend, who paid £4,500 for the honour and for being considered ‘more desirable than anybody from the south’. Clinton found a seat elsewhere, but a petition on his behalf was considered, and in October 1807 Elcho gained control of Lauder.
If poor Elcho dies there will, in that event, be an end to any active exertion of interest in this district of boroughs. If otherways, he will carry or rather keep the seat ... This misapplication of the influence of administration must have sad effects in Lauder, but Mr Perceval, having the right to judge for himself, must take the consequences. It is jest to talk of hereafter opposing Lord Lauderdale in these boroughs on the interest of this administration.
SRO GD51/1/198/5/6; NLS mss 1054, ff. 1, 3.
Elcho’s death, next day, ended any effective opposition to Lauderdale and Sir Hew.
Jedburgh, Roxburghshire (1790, 1812); Dunbar (1796, 1818), North Berwick (1802), Haddingtonshire; Lauder, Berwickshire (1806); Haddington (1807)