From 1715 to 1734 one seat at St. Ives was controlled by Sir John Hobart, who had the ’great tithe’ on pilchards and herrings, and built up a strong interest in the corporation, spending £2,000 on the contested election of 1722 and £500 on the unopposed 1722 election.Hobart Pprs. Norwich City Central Lib. NRS 21140, 75 x 1 and 2. The other seat was controlled by Charles Powlett, M.P., 2nd Duke of Bolton, recorder of the borough and lord of the manor.J.H. Matthews, St.
The principal interest at Windsor lay in the castle. From 1722 to 1761 the Beauclerk dukes of St. Albans, lords lieutenant of Berkshire 1714-51, who owned Burford House in the borough, always held one of the seats, the 2nd Duke being constable of the castle 1730-51. According to the Duchess of Marlborough, George II said at his levee in 1738, ’Lord Vere [Beauclerk] should have the seat in Parliament, for Windsor was his [i.e. the King’s] borough’.Mems of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, ed.
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Dartmouth, Defoe wrote, was ‘a very large and populous town’ though but ‘meanly built’, with ‘some very flourishing merchants, who trade very prosperously and to the most considerable trading parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy and the plantations; but especially they are great traders to Newfoundland, and from thence to Spain and Italy with fish’. By 1689 Joseph Herne, a very wealthy London merchant, had established control over one and sometimes two seats in the borough.Defoe, Tour ed. Cole, 227.
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Economic and social profile:
With an estimated population of 855 in 1377, Bath was smaller than its sister city of Wells and completely overshadowed by its neighbour, Bristol. A merchant guild had come into existence before Bath received its first royal charter in 1189. By 1230 a mayor had appeared. In 1256, a further charter gave the citizens the right of returning royal writs, of bequeathing their property by will, and of nominating coroners;J.C. Russell, Brit. Med. Pop. 142; Mun. Recs. Bath ed.
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