Bere Alston

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in burgage holders

Number of voters:

18-301

Elections

DateCandidate
2 Feb. 1715HORATIO WALPOLE
 LAWRENCE CARTER
24 Jan. 1716CARTER re-elected after appointment to office
9 Dec. 1717EDWARD CARTERET vice Walpole, appointed to office
29 Apr. 1721PHILIP CAVENDISH vice Carteret, appointed to office
 St. John Brodrick
 BRODRICK vice Cavendish, on petition, 6 June 1721
23 Mar. 1722SIR JOHN HOBART
 ST. JOHN BRODRICK
4 Feb. 1724SIR ROBERT RICH vice Hobart, chose to sit for St. Ives
23 Aug. 1727SIR JOHN HOBART
 SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE
2 Mar. 1728SIR ARTHUR CROFT vice Drake, chose to sit for Tavistock
 HENRY HOWARD, Lord Walden, vice Hobart, chose to sit for Norfolk
22 June 1730CROFT re-elected after appointment to office
5 Feb. 1734WILLIAM MORDEN vice Howard, called to the Upper House
1 May 1734SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE
 JOHN BRISTOW
22 Feb. 1740SAMUEL HEATHCOTE vice Drake, deceased
9 May 1741WILLIAM MORDEN
 SAMUEL HEATHCOTE
2 July 1747SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE
 SIR WILLIAM HARBORD
20 Jan. 1753DRAKE re-elected after appointment to office

Main Article

At George I’s accession the representation of Bere Alston was shared by Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, who was lord of the manors of Bere and Landrake, and Sir Francis Drake, 4th Bt., of Buckland Abbey, three or four miles from the borough. On Stamford’s death in 1720 his interest passed to his nephew, Sir John Hobart.2

On 20 Jan. 1721 Drake wrote to Lord Chief Justice King, a former M.P. for Bere Alston:

Sir John Hobart may assure himself I am sincere in maintaining that interest which ought to be his, otherwise the borough cormorants would soon devour it ... I do again empower your Lordship to assure him I have no other desire than to go on with him to the end of the chapter hand in hand.

But in the following April, when Edward Carteret, a Drake nominee,3 vacated his seat by accepting a disqualifying office, Hobart supported Carteret’s son-in-law, Philip Cavendish, who was returned against Drake’s candidate, St. John Brodrick.4 On petition the affair developed into a struggle between rival ministers, Cavendish’s cause being espoused by Carteret’s kinsman, Lord Carteret, while Walpole engaged all his friends for Brodrick, who was awarded the seat (see under Brodrick, St. John).

There were no more contests between the two families, each returning one Member by mutual agreement, which was confirmed in 1754 when Hobart, now Earl of Buckinghamshire, and Sir Francis Drake, 5th Bt., undertook in writing ‘to support each other during our respective lives in having each one Member for Bere Alston’.5

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. Lady F. E. Eliott-Drake, Fam. and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake, i. 219; List of voters as at the last election for Bere Alston [1740], Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.
  • 2. Trans. Dev. Assoc. xli. 155-6.
  • 3. Eliott-Drake, 205-6, 220-1.
  • 4. St. John Brodrick to Ld. Midleton, 27 May 1721, Brodrick mss v. f. 33.
  • 5. Hobart mss, Norwich City Central Lib. N.R.S. 21140, 75 x 2.