The leading resident proprietary interest was that of the 1st Marquess of Ely, but Lords Portsmouth (an absentee), Courtown and Mountnorris and the latter’s brother-in-law Sir Frederick Flood, Lord Spencer Chichester and, among the gentry, the Alcock, Carew, Colclough and Ram families possessed substantial interests. The independent and Catholic interests had also to be reckoned with, the latter emerging as early as 1797 and growing in importance, reflecting a predominantly Catholic electorate.
Ely, who obtained a marquessate for his manipulation of his squad of Members in the Irish parliament in favour of the Union
On Ely’s death in March 1806, his heir proposed to substitute William Congreve Alcock, a distant relative of his and formerly Member for Waterford city. The new Grenville ministry were urged by their Irish chancellor of the exchequer, Sir John Newport, who had ousted Alcock from Waterford, not to support him, as ‘the old independent interests that were always in opposition to Lord Loftus’ were prepared to sponsor Caesar Colclough of Tintern Abbey, then abroad. He was a kinsman of Lady Spencer and his interest was zealously promoted locally by his younger brother John, and in London by the Prince of Wales, who wrote for Portsmouth’s support. Newport also pointed out that if government supported Colclough now, the return, in coalition, of Colclough and his own brother-in-law Robert Shapland Carew (who at present made way for Colclough) could be obtained at the general election. The proviso was that Mountnorris and Sir Frederick Flood, who had an eye to the seat himself, should support this plan. Government, sceptical as to whether it would succeed anyway and not without hope of conciliating Ely, who had grown so powerful at government expense, were reluctant to agree to it: especially when Mountnorris, to whom Ely had offered a borough seat for his support, and Flood demanded rewards for their co-operation. In the end government settled for their neutrality and this was enough to enable Colclough, with Catholic support, to defeat Alcock at the ensuing by-election. Ely was indignant, threatening to raise the subject of government interference in the Lords, particularly in view of the bishop of Ferns’ and the Prince of Wales’ support for Colclough, together with that of the local revenue officers. Nothing came of a petition against Colclough’s return on the ground of his long absence abroad.
In July 1806 Abel Ram, foreseeing that he might be the victim of a coalition of Colclough and Carew at the general election, tried, but failed to obtain Lord Grenville’s support, which he had claimed locally to have. In October Ely made a last bid to preserve his influence and secure Alcock’s return by suggesting a compromise with Mountnorris, whereby each would return a county Member and he would find a borough seat for the latter’s heir Lord Valentia. Complaining of government’s hostility to him, he emphasized that his nominee for Wexford city, Wigram, was well disposed to government and made him his go-between. This suggestion tempted the government as Caesar Colclough was a prisoner of war in France, but they were informed by the Irish chancellor that John Colclough, who had now come forward in place of his brother, was unlikely to relinquish his pretensions and that such a bargain with Ely, an arch-Protestant, would alienate the Catholic interest. Despite reservations about John Colclough’s respectability, government therefore adhered to Newport’s proposal for supporting Colclough and Carew. Sir Frederick Flood, speaking also for Mountnorris, declared that he would support them as a protest against ‘the shameful state of vassalage in which a certain noble family had held the county for 17 years’. Failing a last bid by Ely to depose Colclough by buying a seat for him, Ram, who had also tried once more for government support at Colclough’s expense, made a virtue of declining a poll. Alcock also declined. Flood was rewarded with the office of custos rotulorum, which Mountnorris had previously requested for himself. Mountnorris now sought an English peerage, but this was too much to ask.
Ely’s opportunity for revenge came within a year, when the Portland ministry dissolved Parliament. They supported Ram and Alcock at his bidding and secured the interests of Portsmouth and Mountnorris for them. Carew not only withdrew, hoping apparently for a compromise to be arranged, but gave his interest to Alcock. Colclough, left without a running partner, made a notional choice of Richard Sheridan, without the latter’s knowledge. A poll commenced, but was brought to a halt when Alcock challenged Colclough to a duel for trespassing on the votes of tenants of an English widow Mrs Cholmondeley, which he had been promised, and, on 30 May, shot him dead before the assembled county.
In 1818 the fiercest contest ever remembered took place. The 2nd Earl of Mountnorris having, as anticipated, sponsored his heir Lord Valentia (George Arthur Annesley) to replace Flood, and Courtown his heir Lord Stopford (James Thomas Stopford), Carew formed an alliance in March 1817 with Caesar Colclough, brother of the victim of 1807, who had since returned from abroad. Mountnorris believed that this coalition would gain him the support of those independent gentlemen who had previously supported the Ely interest, now in abeyance; but he agreed to a coalition between his son and Stopford and they received government support against the two Whigs by April 1817. The Castle proceeded to help Mountnorris mop up the oustanding uncommitted interests, and, confident of victory, he declared before the poll began, ‘we have nearly the whole aristocracy of the county with us’. The chief secretary hoped to gain one, if not both seats. There were, however, few Catholics who supported the aristocratic junto. Courtown’s only fear was that the priests would interfere at the instigation of Dr Ryan, bishop of Wexford and ‘prevent the tenants coming in to poll’ for his son. He wished the Castle to circumvent this. Mountnorris, too, applied for the votes of Catholics living on crown lands, who would otherwise support Carew and Colclough. The latter were the popular candidates and, in the ensuing poll, inflicted on the young aristocrats ‘one of the greatest defeats ministers have sustained in Ireland’. In a close battle, in which Mountnorris complained that his son’s colleague, who came nearer to winning a seat, did not provide effective support, it was probably the Catholic vote that swayed the election.
Number of voters: about 7500 in 1818