Chippenham

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:

about 130

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
24 Jan. 1715JOHN EYLES 
 GILES EARLE 
 John Bayntun 
 John Norris 
20 Apr. 1720EARLE re-elected after appointment to office 
22 Mar. 1722EDWARD ROLT 
 SIR JOHN EYLES 
22 Jan. 1723THOMAS BOUCHER vice Rolt, deceased95
 John Pitt25
 Alexander Elton0
18 Aug. 1727ROGERS HOLLAND 
 GABRIEL ROBERTS 
24 Apr. 1734RICHARD LONG73
 ROGERS HOLLAND68
 Sir John Eyles57
 Francis Eyles49
22 June 1737EDWARD BAYNTUN ROLT vice Holland, appointed to office91
 Rogers Holland32
4 May 1741EDWARD BAYNTUN ROLT71
 SIR EDMUND THOMAS69
 Alexander Hume60
 John Frederick50
26 June 1747SIR EDMUND THOMAS 
 EDWARD BAYNTUN ROLT 
24 June 1751BAYNTUN ROLT re-elected after appointment to office 

Main Article

At the accession of George I Chippenham was an open borough, with the Whig and Tory interests fairly evenly balanced. In 1715 and 1727 ministerial supporters were returned, but in 1722 and 1734 the Government secured only one seat, which was lost at a by-election in 1737 to an opposition Whig, Edward Bayntun Rolt, of Spye Park, four miles from the town, an estate carrying with it the most important interest in the borough.

At the next general election great efforts were made by the Government to recover both seats. But in October 1740 Bayntun Rolt and Sir Edmund Thomas, the other opposition candidate, with several of their supporters, were made freemen,1 thus acquiring control of the corporation and with it the nomination of the bailiff, who acted as returning officer. Two days before the election they are alleged to have brought into the town ‘a considerable number of armed men ... to terrify and intimidate the voters’. Their final blow was to arrange for the arrest on a trumped up charge of their opponents’ chief supporter, the sheriff, who was detained at Devizes, bail of £10,000 being refused, till the morning after the poll.2 After an expensive and disorderly contest, on which one of the government candidates spent some £4,000,3 Bayntun Rolt and Thomas were narrowly elected. The resulting petition was dealt with on purely party lines by the House of Commons, who on 28 Jan. 1742 decided a minor point in connexion with it against the Government by one vote, the immediate cause of Walpole’s resignation. On 2 Feb. the final determination of the petition was carried against the Administration by 16 votes. No future election at Chippenham was contested till 1802.

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Chippenham Recs. ed. Goldney, 81.
  • 2. CJ, xxiv. 15-16.
  • 3. Add. 32995, f. 172.