Dorset

There was no controlling interest at Dorchester. The Members were usually drawn from a number of local families with property and influence in the borough. Of these the two most prominent on the Tory side were the Napiers of Middlemarsh and Puncknowle, and the Goulds, who had started out in Dorchester itself, where one branch headed by James Gould remained, while the senior branch was seated nearby at Upway. They were supported by the leaders of the Dorset Tories, the two county Members, Thomas Freke I, who had been high sheriff of Dorchester since 1684, and Thomas Strangways I.

The chief interest at Corfe Castle lay with John Bankes, whose family had owned the manor since 1635 and usually controlled one seat. The other had been held since 1681 by Richard Fownes, a Dorset landowner and High Tory. In 1690 Bankes, who had only recently succeeded his father, declined to stand, being unwilling immediately to embark on a political career. This gave an opportunity to William Culliford, a local placeman in the customs service with a longstanding association with the borough.

There was no controlling interest at Bridport although some influence was exercised by the Strangways family of Melbury Sampford, strong Tories in whom the high stewardship of the borough was virtually hereditary. Thomas Strangways I sat for the county throughout the period until his death in 1713, and his son (Thomas II) was not of age until the 1705 election. Consequently the Strangways took little part in Bridport elections during William’s reign.

According to Oldfield, the corporation had arrogated to themselves the right of election, ‘without any opposition from the inhabitants’,Boroughs (1792), ii. 277. and Christchurch was in effect a corporation borough. For most of this period it was controlled by Edward Hooper, M.P. for Christchurch 1735-48 and commissioner of customs 1748-93, who returned his cousin, James Harris, and generally placed the other seat at the disposal of Administration.

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.

Shaftesbury, wrote Lord Ilchester to Newcastle on 13 Aug. 1754, was a ‘troublesome, expensive, and corrupt’ borough. For some time Ilchester had disputed its control with Lord Shaftesbury, but in 1747 they agreed each to nominate one Member; and by 1754 were ‘very good friends and upon good terms’.Add. 32736, f. 235.

An historian of Shaftesbury writes about this agreement:J. Rutter, ‘Hist. Shaftesbury’, t/s in Shaftesbury Mus.

There was no dominant interest, but a number of local landowners had influence: the Earl of Shaftesbury, high steward 1757-71; Lord Milton, high steward 1771-98; the Earl of Cholmondeley; and the Pitts of Encombe. There was also an independent vote. In 1754 John Pitt, one of the sitting Members, concluded a compromise with Lord Milton. Lord Malpas, defeated at Dorchester in 1752, who had intended to stand again, was persuaded by Henry Pelham to support the compromise. William Templeman, of a family of local attorneys much concerned in Dorset borough elections, wrote to Malpas, 23 Mar.

John Scrope, Walpole’s secretary to the Treasury, represented Lyme Regis from 1734 till his death in 1752. By the judicious use of Government patronage, and by reducing the number of freemen and introducing non-residents into the corporation, he built up an interest in the borough which passed at his death to his nephew, Francis Fane. The Fanes continued to manage the borough, as Scrope had done, with the help of Government; and in 1758 they were given £100 per annum from secret service funds for Lyme.