Tewkesbury was a placid borough, with the corporation in control. It was free from the cruder forms of bribery: instead, the Members paid a lump sum or else made a contribution towards some municipal undertaking. About 1754 the Dowdeswell, Martin, and Gage families had most influence in the borough: nine Dowdeswells had sat since 1660; the Martins held one seat 1734-47 and 1774-1807; and Lord Gage sat from 1721 to 1754.
In the first half of the eighteenth century the leading interests at Cirencester were in the Bathurst and Master families, both of which were Tory. But when in 1749 Thomas Master died, leaving a five-year-old son, a rift occurred between the Tories.
In 1754 Bristol was the second largest city in the kingdom and the third largest urban constituency. Elections were extremely expensive: of its 5,000 voters about a third lived outside the town; canvassing was laborious; and the size of the constituency forced it to develop some sort of political organization.
Harwich was controlled by the Treasury, operating through the Customs House (in 1763 ten of its officers were in the corporation) and the Post Office, operating through the Harwich packet boats (whose agent and four captains were generally elected into the corporation). There was also a so-called independent interest, discreetly promoted by successive Government managers: each in turn, while professing to be solely concerned to secure the Government hold on the borough, was in fact trying to build up an interest of his own.
In 1754 the Government interest at Maldon seemed firmly established. Maldon being a port, there were places in the customs to be given to members of the corporation; strangers picked by the Government were introduced into the corporation; and honorary freemen were made at election time, connected with the candidates or the Government, but not necessarily with the borough or county. Still, a freeman borough could never be reduced to absolute dependence upon the Treasury; and nothing could be done without money.
Colchester had a large electorate and was noted for frequent and expensive contests. A large proportion of the freemen were non-resident: of the 1280 who voted in 1788, 528 came from Colchester, 227 from London, and 525 from other places. The situation at Colchester in 1754 was unusual since, as a result of legal proceedings taken after the election of 1741, the corporation had been dissolved. The three candidates in 1754 were all local men, each standing on a separate interest, and each pledged to restore the town’s charter.
Throughout this period Durham was represented by the Lambton and Tempest families. At the general election of 1761 they were challenged by the Earl of Darlington, who, with the support of the corporation and of the bishop of Durham, set up Ralph Gowland. Gowland was defeated, but stood again at the by-election in December. This, the most controversial Durham election of the century, resulted in a victory for Gowland by three votes on a poll of over 1,500, but only because the corporation had created over 200 honorary freemen to carry the election.E.
According to a survey in the Calcraft papers at Rempstone there were in 1753 about 500 tenements at Wareham, of which more than a hundred belonged to the Draxes, and above 50 to the Pitts. On 19 May 1750 John Pitt wrote to Henry PelhamNewcastle (Clumber) mss. about a project on foot ‘for bringing about a reconciliation between me and Mr. Drax, which ... will secure me the constant nomination of a Member at Wareham’. It obviously failed; only after the election of April 1754 had been declared voidCJ, 19 Dec.
Government had considerable interest through the customs and the Crown quarries at Portland. The most important private interest belonged to the Tucker family, who for many years held the post of supervisor of the Portland quarries, and to George Bubb Dodington, who joined his interest to that of Tucker and acted as intermediary with Government. In 1744 Dodington came to an agreement with Henry Pelham by which Government should recommend to two seats in exchange for the disposal of patronage.
There was an old and close connexion between Poole and Newfoundland: trade with Newfoundland and the Carolinas ranked foremost in Poole’s eighteenth-century economy, and the interests of Newfoundland were usually attended to in Parliament and Government departments by the Members for Poole and Dartmouth. Poole corporation was dominated by a merchant oligarchy, but most of the Members were big London merchants concerned in the Newfoundland trade, or neighbouring squires.
