Devon

There was no single predominant interest at Barnstaple, which usually returned members of local families without a contest. The most important of these were the Rolles of Stevenstone, originally Tory, who went over to the Government in 1739, and Hugh Fortescue, Lord Clinton, an opposition Whig, whose house dominated the approach to Barnstaple. At the by-election in 1748, when the Rolles, supported by the Government, and the Fortescues, supported by the Prince of Wales, each put up candidates, Lord Clinton wrote to the Prince’s election manager:

In 1715 Ashburton was controlled by two Whigs, Roger Tuckfield of Raddon Court, who owned a moiety of the manor of Ashburton, and Richard Reynell of East Ogwell and Denbury, near the borough. They shared the representation till 1734 when Reynell was ousted by Sir William Yonge, standing jointly with Tuckfield, with the support of the Drake family, who owned the other moiety of the manor.Letter of John Dipford, 19 Feb.

The chief interests at Saltash in 1715 were those of two neighbouring landowners, Tories, John Francis Buller and Sir William Carew, who owned the majority of the burgages in the borough, which their families had represented since the early seventeenth century. It was in dispute whether the franchise was only in the corporation of 27 members or also in the 30 odd burgage-holders.

The Interregnum dealt severe blows to the two dominant interests in Totnes, the Seymour family and the cloth trade. The former sold their property in the town, including the castle, to pay off their fines as Royalists, but still from their residence at Berry Pomeroy, just outside the town, enjoyed a deference vote which was only once seriously challenged throughout the period. The latter, over-specialized for the Spanish market, never recovered from Cromwellian foreign policy.

Tiverton was the most considerable industrial town in 17th century Devon, remarkable for its numerous charities and benefactions. Its representatives were all resident in the county, and even country gentlemen like Sir Thomas Stucley and Henry Ford showed themselves aware of the economic concerns of their constituents. There was no dominant territorial interest, though the Colmans, a minor gentry family, owned a small fraction of the manor and resided within the borough. Presbyterianism was evidently strong.

At the dissolution of the monasteries ‘the burgh and town of Tavistock and all the burgages thereof’ passed into the hands of the Russells, and throughout the period one seat was held by the family except for the opening session of the Cavalier Parliament and in 1685. The other seat was occupied until his death by George Howard of Fitzford, just outside the town, and afterwards by Sir Francis Drake of Buckland Abbey, a local magnate whose political attitudes made him a natural ally of the Russells.

Plympton, ‘a stannary town and parcel of the duchy of Cornwall’, was exposed to government influence, but except for Sir Christopher Wren in 1685 all the Members in this period were Devon residents. There may have been a contest in 1660, for Lord Wharton noted William Strode, a passive Royalist, and Christopher Martyn, an obscure Rumper, as returned on only one indenture. But if there was a double return, nothing is known of the rival candidates. Strode was re-elected in 1661 with Thomas Hele, son of a prominent Royalist.

Plymouth’s corporation consisted of mayor, recorder, 12 aldermen, and 24 assistants. Until the Restoration the franchise was restricted to this body, and even after the decision of 9 June 1660 to extend it to the ‘commonalty’, corporation interest was strong enough to secure the return of the recorder, Serjeant Maynard, at four of the next six general elections.

Under James I’s charter the corporation of Okehampton consisted of eight ‘burgesses’, eight assistants, the recorder and town clerk. The franchise was restored in 1640 on the initiative of Lord Mohun, who took his title from the town; but the family was royalist in the Civil War, and the borough was deprived of both seats in the Instrument of Government. At the general election of 1660 there were three candidates, and, with little experience of parliamentary elections, some of the voters seem to have believed that there was only one seat to be filled.

Honiton, which was restored as a parliamentary borough in 1640, had no municipal institutions. It was a market and postal town, and the centre of the English lace industry. The returning officer was the portreeve, appointed by Sir William Courtenay as lord of the manor. Courtenay owned the market and the principal inn, but the Yonges of Colyton were the leading property owners in the borough, and rivalry between the two families was unhelpful to the country interest.