Hampshire

The corporation of Winchester contained an indefinite number of freemen, many of them non-resident and appointed purely for electoral purposes. One seat was held by two Henry Pentons, father and son, 1747-96. The other was at first contested between the Duke of Bolton and the Duke of Chandos, who in 1751 inherited the Avington estate, within five miles of Winchester. Henry Penton and Chandos’s son, Lord Carnarvon, were returned unopposed in 1754. In the autumn of 1756 there was a contest between Bolton and Carnarvon within the Winchester corporation. On 24 Sept.

Although Southampton apparently never went to the poll during the first 20 years of this period, it was an open borough. In a list drawn up for Newcastle about the end of March 1754, it was marked as ‘contested’, with Abel Walter, a local man, as third candidate.Add. 32995, ff. 138-41. He had announced his candidature in a letter in the London Evening Post, 2-5 Feb. 1754, but seems to have withdrawn before the election.

John Jolliffe inherited from his first wife a number of burgages at Petersfield, and in 1736 established his hold on the borough by acquiring from Edward Gibbon sen. the manor and further burgages. So long as the Jolliffes’ title to them was valid, their hold on the borough was complete.

Portsmouth was an Admiralty borough in which at least one Member was usually an admiral, but the other frequently a neighbouring country gentleman. In the distribution of patronage due regard was paid to the corporation. On 22 Dec. 1764 George Grenville writing to George Brydges Rodney named Sir Edward Hawke, M.P. for Portsmouth, and the corporation as ‘the usual channel of recommendation’ to vacant posts in the borough.Grenville letter bk. And Sir Charles Saunders wrote on 11 Oct.

In the first half of the 18th century Lymington was controlled by the Burrards of Walhampton, and the Powletts, Dukes of Bolton. In 1745 Charles, 3rd Duke of Bolton, tried to secure sole control of the borough, but was defeated by the alliance of his nephew, Charles Powlett, and Harry Burrard, with the support of the Treasury. Burrard himself represented Lymington 1741-78; from 1754 to 1761 the other Member was a Powlett, and from 1761 to 1774 a nominee of the Treasury.

During the early part of this period Newport was controlled by Thomas Holmes and its Members were invariably recommended by Administration. On Holmes’s death in 1764, his place was taken by his nephew and heir, the Rev. Leonard Troughear Holmes, who continued to work with successive Administrations in co-operation with the new governor of the Isle of Wight, Hans Stanley.

There were originally 36 burgages at Newtown, but the number was raised to 39 by three being split: the validity of the split burgages was disputed. At the only contest of this period, that of 1768, votes were cast for 46 burgages but eleven were disallowed.Worsley ms 19, in the possession of Lord Yarborough. No single family owned a majority of burgages, but the Barringtons of Swainston had enough to claim and secure one seat throughout the period.

The chief parliamentary interest was in the Earl of Portsmouth, whose seat at Hurstbourne was five miles from the borough: John Griffin Griffin, whose aunt was married to the 1st Earl, sat on his interest; and after him, William Fellowes, whose sister was married to the 2nd Earl. But when in September 1760 Francis Blake Delaval tried through Newcastle for a juncture with Griffin, Portsmouth replied:Add. 32912, f. 193.

By a compromise agreement which had operated since 1774, Rev. Leonard Holmes (formerly Troughear, heir to Thomas Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes) and Jervoise Clarke Jervoise named a Member each. Their pact involved the gradual elimination of the free burgesses by natural wastage, so that Yarmouth became, in effect, a close corporation borough with 13 capital burgesses.Oldfield, Boroughs, i. 281. This alliance discouraged any opposition, even when, as in 1790, both patrons supported the Whig interest.

Since 1774 Winchester had been a close borough under the joint patronage of Henry Penton, whose father established his interest in 1747, and James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos, who from 1784 returned his brother-in-law Richard Gamon. On Chandos’s death in 1789, his interest passed to his heiress Anne Elizabeth, suo jure Baroness Kinloss [S]. In 1796 Penton retired. His wish to do so had been known to the 3rd Duke of Portland, whose line he followed, and Portland solicited his seat, 28 Jan.