Borough

Described even by those who lived nearby as ‘a remote and almost forgotten corner of the kingdom’, Maldon was a small market town with some maritime trade, principally the importing of coal. One of the most prominent merchants involved in this trade, William Coe, was a Congregationalist who in 1696 leased property for a meeting house, and whose family championed the strong Dissenting presence in the town. According to an estimate made during the reign of George I, almost half the population (thought to be about 1,100 in 1700) were Presbyterians, of whom just over 100 voted in elections.

‘A town of hurry and business, not much of gaiety and pleasure’, Harwich was noticeably busier during war than peace. Its deep harbour, protected by Landguard Fort, made it ideal for shipbuilding and the transport of passengers and mail to and from the Continent. Considerable trade for the 22 inns in Harwich came from the soldiers and sailors stationed there, and from passengers detained by adverse winds.

Colchester experienced troubled times under the later Stuarts, both politically and economically. The population of the town itself (enough to rank it as one of the ten largest in the country), together with that of its hinterland, was mostly employed in the woollen industry. The area was still in 1720 ‘the most famous place in England for making of bays and says’, but this manufacturing base was in a state of gradual decline, and vulnerable to crises from the mid-1690s through to the disruption to its main market caused by the Spanish war in Anne’s reign.

Throughout this period Durham consistently returned a combination of members of the local gentry and men from families with strong connections to the corporation. Many of the successful gentry candidates also had links to the borough elite, so that it seems that possession of corporate office, or ties to others who held such office, played an important role in Durham elections.

The right of election at Weymouth and Melcombe Regis lay with the freeholders. Since the boroughs had been united, thereby returning four Members, each elector had four votes. The size of the electorate increased rapidly towards the end of Anne’s reign, as party rivalry gave rise to the widespread practice of splitting freeholds. The nature of the franchise militated against the existence of any controlling interest.

The interest at Wareham was divided between the Pitts of Strathfieldsaye, Hampshire, Tories who owned property and several advowsons in the borough, and Thomas Erle of Charborough, a local Whig who had held one of the seats since 1679. In 1690 Erle was returned unopposed, but there was a contest for the second seat between Thomas Skinner†, a Dissenter who had represented the borough in the Convention, and William Okeden, who probably stood on the Pitt interest.

Edward Nicholas, a local Tory landowner who was first returned in 1689, possessed sufficient interest at Shaftesbury to retain one seat throughout the period. The other principal interest in the town belonged to the earls of Shaftesbury, though the 2nd Earl (Anthony Ashley†) was far less active than his son, Lord Ashley (Anthony*), a Country Whig. In 1690 Nicholas had been returned with Sir Matthew Andrews, a Whig standing on his own interest, which was based on possession of a nearby estate, an alliance with the recorder and justified popularity through his frequent ‘charitable acts’.

The franchise at Poole was disputed between the corporation and freemen on the one hand, and the inhabitants paying scot and lot on the other. A double return in 1689 had not produced a clear decision. The elections committee had declared in favour of the candidates elected on the scot-and-lot vote, but the House had disagreed and seated the two returned on the freeman franchise.

The main interest at Lyme Regis lay with two local Whig families, the Henleys, who owned land in and around the town and had established an almost hereditary right to one seat, and the Burridges, a merchant family whose members had frequently filled the mayor’s office and who had become sufficiently influential by 1689 to supply a parliamentary representative. John Burridge I had been returned after a contest in 1689, when a longstanding controversy over the right of election was also revived. Since 1660 returns had been made by the mayor, corporation and freemen.

There was no controlling interest at Dorchester. The Members were usually drawn from a number of local families with property and influence in the borough. Of these the two most prominent on the Tory side were the Napiers of Middlemarsh and Puncknowle, and the Goulds, who had started out in Dorchester itself, where one branch headed by James Gould remained, while the senior branch was seated nearby at Upway. They were supported by the leaders of the Dorset Tories, the two county Members, Thomas Freke I, who had been high sheriff of Dorchester since 1684, and Thomas Strangways I.