Borough

Oldfield wrote about Grantham in 1792: ‘The Duke of Rutland and Lord Brownlow, from their property in the town, the contiguity of their seats, and their personal interest, have the entire command of its representation.’ The same holds good throughout the period. When in 1766 John Calcraft, a friend of Lord Granby and son of a town clerk of Grantham, tried to establish an interest in the borough, obviously against the Custs, he received no encouragement from Belvoir;Recs. Cust. Fam. ii. 84, 249, 253; Add. 17496, ff.

The course of Leicester politics in the second half of the eighteenth century was largely determined by the conflict between the corporation and the independent party, and between the Anglicans and the Dissenters. These did not always coincide, but two parties tended to develop—one calling themselves Whigs, and the others called by their opponents Tories. Rioting was endemic at election time, but party conflict and the size of the electorate prevented the borough from becoming corrupt.

Because of the size of its electorate and the nature of its franchise Wigan was an extremely difficult constituency to manage. The electorate was sufficiently small to tempt a patron, yet too large for it to be controlled without considerable labour and expense. The voters were mainly small shopkeepers and craftsmen, without much political consciousness. The admission of freemen was regulated by a complicated municipal constitution, whose exact interpretation depended in the last resort on the courts of law.

The politics of Liverpool turned on the conflict between the Anglican-dominated corporation and an independent party supported by the Dissenters; and the names Whig and Tory were used to distinguish the two sides. But political divisions at Liverpool did not necessarily correspond with those at Westminster. The Government had some influence through the customs appointments and the merchants need for Government favours, but there was in no sense a Government interest.

Newton was a pocket borough of the family of Legh of Lyme Park. As lords of the manor they appointed the steward and the bailiff (the returning officers), and in this period had complete control of the corporation.

By a determination of the House of Commons in 1661 the right of election was in the inhabitants, which was always understood to mean the resident freemen; and the borough was controlled by the corporation and the neighbouring gentry. Lord Strange, son of Lord Derby, had an estate around Preston and cultivated the borough; and in 1768, after one of the most violent elections of this period, wrested control from the corporation.W. Dobson, Parlty. Rep. Preston, 33-42.

The Members for Lancaster were usually neighbouring landowners—Abraham Rawlinson was the only merchant to sit for the borough during this period. The Reynolds family had considerable influence, and it was on an agreement with Francis Reynolds that George Warren was first returned in 1758. The Cavendish interest was based on the estates which the family had inherited from Sir William Lowther.

From 1754 to 1780 Clitheroe was a pocket borough of the Lister and Curzon families, who jointly held 53 out of its 102 burgages. But in 1780 Thomas Lister cheated his partner out of his share in the representation of the borough by refusing to agree to the conveyance of the joint burgages to nominal voters. Having thus set aside 53 of the burgages, Lister, who held 30 out of the remaining 49, was able to nominate to both seats; which he did, despite the protests of the Curzon family, for the remainder of this period.

Queenborough was under the patronage of the Admiralty and the Ordnance, each department recommending to one seat. Admission of new freemen belonged to the corporation, a body of seven which was effectively controlled by Government; and a large proportion of the freemen were employed by the Admiralty or the Ordnance. Local landowners, like Lord Middlesex, or admirals standing against the Government (Brett in 1774 and Parker in 1784) had little chance.

The ports and dockyards of Rochester and Chatham, and the Victualling Office, supplied an Admiralty interest, reinforced by the Customs and Excise; as a rule the Government could carry one seat only, which more often than not was filled by a naval officer. But there was also a local interest, especially strong if joined to that of some neighbouring country gentleman.Add. 32972, f. 64.