Bridgnorth

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 the freemen

Number of voters:

1,000 in 1710; 1,400 in 1741

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
1 Feb. 1715WILLIAM WHITMORE 
 JOHN WEAVER 
24 Mar. 1722WILLIAM WHITMORE 
 JOHN WEAVER 
8 June 1725ST. JOHN CHARLTON vice Whitmore, deceased 
30 Sept. 1727ST. JOHN CHARLTON666
 JOHN WEAVER621
 Whitmore Acton507
 Edward Acton316
 Edward Bridges94
14 May 1734THOMAS WHITMORE727
 GREY JAMES GROVE714
 Sir Richard Acton511
 Sir Robert Lawley484
14 May 1741THOMAS WHITMORE878
 WILLIAM WHITMORE829
 Lancelot Lee552
 Sir Richard Acton30
 Henry Mytton2
 Sir Walter Bagot1
 William Lacon Childe1
24 June 1747SIR THOMAS WHITMORE 
 ARTHUR WEAVER 

Main Article

In spite of the relatively large electorate, Bridgnorth was dominated by the Whitmores of Apley, Whigs, who owned a large part of the town, appointed most of the local lay and ecclesiastical officials and maintained a close control on the corporation, headed by two annually elected bailiffs, who acted as returning officers.1 Their chief rivals were the Tory Actons of Aldenham, who were supported by a Jacobite element in the town.

Under George I the Whitmore interest prevailed without opposition but all the next three elections were contested. In 1727, during the minority of Thomas Whitmore, when the family interest was managed by his mother,2 the Actons made an unsuccessful attempt to oust the Whitmore candidates. Before the election of 1734 Thomas Whitmore obtained the election of favourable bailiffs, after a Tory mob, incited by the opposition candidates, had besieged the town hall and been dispersed by the military. Fearing further rioting, Whitmore and Grove, his fellow Whig candidate, appealed to the Duke of Newcastle for troops to be sent to overawe the mob.3 Troops were sent, with the approval of Sir Robert Walpole, who wrote to Newcastle: ‘Tis easy to foresee what will be said, but the notoriety of the fact must and will justify the proceeding.’4 Both in 1734 and 1741 the success of the Whitmores was largely due to the careful management of the out-voters,5 an expensive proceeding with so large an electorate. The 2nd Lord Egmont wrote in his electoral survey, c.1749-50, that ‘by dint of vast expense, Whitmore commands this borough’.6

Author: J. B. Lawson

Notes

  • 1. J. F. A. Mason, Borough of Bridgnorth 1157-1957, pp. 32-34.
  • 2. Whitmore mss at Apley Park.
  • 3. 24 Sept. 1733, SP Dom. 36/30, f. 148.
  • 4. Newcastle to Whitmore and Grove, 26 Sept. 1733, SP Dom. 36/30, f. 158.
  • 5. 26 Sept. 1733, SP Dom. 36/30, f. 164.
  • 6. Mason, 33.