Cumberland politics were dominated by three Whig families, who owned the principal baronies: the Lowthers, Viscounts Lonsdale, the Howards, earls of Carlisle, and the Seymours, dukes of Somerset. Each of these families had its own sphere of influence, the Lowthers normally recommending at least one Member for the county, the Howards one for Carlisle, and the Seymours one for Cockermouth.
The principal Whig families in Cheshire were the Cholmondeleys of Cholmondeley, who held the lord lieutenancy, the Booths of Dunham Massey, and the Cottons of Combermere. The majority of the country gentlemen were Tory, including the Cholmondeleys of Vale Royal, the Warburtons of Arley, and the Grosvenors of Eaton, who represented Chester.
At George I’s accession the leading Cambridgeshire Tories were Sir John Hynde Cotton of Madingley, who sat for Cambridge, and Lord Oxford’s son, Lord Harley, who had recently acquired Wimpole by marriage. The sitting Members, John Bromley, classed as a Whig who would often vote with the Tories, and John Jenyns, classed as a Tory who might often vote with the Whigs, were re-elected, defeating a Jacobite, Granado Pigot.G. Pigot to Ld. North and Grey, undated, Bodl. North mss c. 9, f. 116.
At George I’s accession, Buckinghamshire was represented by two Tories. The head of the Tory interest was the lord lieutenant, Lord Cheyne, who was replaced by a Whig before the general election; that of the Whigs was Lord Wharton, who died soon after it. To make certain of securing one seat at the 1715 election Wharton arranged for what he called a ‘shameful compromise’Wharton to Rich. Hampden, 9 Oct. 1714, Glynde mss, E. Suss.
The chief interest in Berkshire was that of the 2nd Earl of Abingdon, a Tory, who had previously represented the county. In 1715 both the sitting Tory Members were re-elected unopposed, retaining their seats against a Whig candidate in 1722. In 1727, when they were opposed by Lord Fane, a local Whig landowner, Lady Fane appealed to a friend in London to ask Walpole to obtain the interest of the dean of St.
From 1715 to 1754, although the Whig and Tory strengths were about equal in the county and the earlier elections were stoutly contested, only three Tories were returned, one of whom was unseated on petition. Till the reign of George II the principal Whig influence lay in the Duke of Kent, who wrote to Walpole, 15 Dec.
The only known calculation of the Radnorshire electorate occurs in 1677, when (Sir) Edward Harley was told that if one of the candidates could muster 800 voters he would have an easy victory. The Gwynnes of Llanelwedd had the predominant interest, and none of the elections in which they stood is known to have been contested.
The Owens of Orielton represented Pembrokeshire from 1660 to 1710 with one short interval. In the Convention and Cavalier Parliaments the seat was held by the cadet branch of New Moat. Arthur Owen I was a Presbyterian Royalist, and his son John, a stop-gap for the last weeks of 1678, may have been regarded as a member of the country party, though the election was held at Slebech, the domain of the Roman Catholic Barlow baronets. He was replaced for the first and second Exclusion Parliaments by the head of the family whose political views were similar.
The recusancy of the Herberts of Powis led to the primacy of their cousins of Chirbury in Montgomeryshire throughout this period. The chief independent interest was exercised by the Vaughans of Llwydiarth. Shortly before the 1660 election, Edward Vaughan was arrested as a Royalist, and both interests may have agreed to select his nephew John Purcell, of a minor gentry family that had avoided recent political commitment.
Members for Merioneth were usually nominated at preliminary meetings of the gentry, and no contests are definitely known during the period, despite the lack of a borough seat. In 1660, in order to exclude Edward Vaughan I and another outsider from Montgomeryshire, it was agreed that only a resident would be elected. Several local gentlemen refused to stand, but Edmund Meyricke was ultimately ‘persuaded’ to accept the seat. In 1661, he was replaced by the courtier, Henry Wynn, who had married a Merioneth heiress.
