Dorchester

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 persons paying church and poor rates, i.e. scot and lot, resident or non-resident

Number of voters:

less than 300

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
3 Feb. 1715SIR NATHANIEL NAPIER 
 HENRY TRENCHARD 
23 Apr. 1720ROBERT BROWNE  jun. vice Trenchard, deceased133
 Abraham Janssen132
 JANSSEN vice Browne, on petition, 18 May 1720 
28 Mar. 1722EDMUND MORTON PLEYDELL147
 JOSEPH DAMER141
 William Chapple138
 George White138
 CHAPPLE vice Pleydell, on petition 13 Feb. 1723 
21 Aug. 1727WILLIAM CHAPPLE 
 JOHN BROWNE 
13 Mar. 1728CHAPPLE re-elected after appointment to office 
29 Apr. 1734JOHN BROWNE215
 SIR WILLIAM CHAPPLE174
 Churchill Rose76
24 Feb. 1736BROWNE re-elected after appointment to office 
25 June 1737ROBERT BROWNE vice Chapple, appointed to office 
5 May 1741JOHN BROWNE 
 NATHANIEL GUNDRY 
22 July 1742GUNDRY re-elected after appointment to office 
29 June 1747JOHN BROWNE 
 NATHANIEL GUNDRY 
29 Jan. 1751GEORGE DAMER vice Browne, deceased 
29 Jan. 1751 JOHN PITT vice Gundry, appointed to office 
28 Mar. 1752GEORGE CLAVELL vice Damer, deceased119
 George Cholmondeley, Visct. Malpas113

Main Article

The principal Tory interest lay in the Brownes of Frampton, of whom Robert Browne succeeded his father as high steward in 1734, and John Browne, the recorder from 1747 to 1750, held one of the seats for 23 years. The Whig interest was supported by the Duke of Newcastle, who in 1711 had inherited the site of the priory and the manor of Frome Whitfield, within the borough, from his uncle Duke John,1 the high steward from 1701. The Damer family also developed a strong interest and there was an independent vote.

With the exception of Abraham Janssen, all the Dorchester Members were local or Dorset landowners, three of them being well-known lawyers. The two sitting Tory Members were re-elected in 1715 but Whigs were successful in 1722, one of whom, William Chapple, who was seated on petition, had Newcastle’s support in three elections. From 1727 to 1747 inclusive there appears to have been a compromise, John Browne holding one seat and the other going to a Whig, except at a by-election in 1737 when Robert Browne was unopposed. In 1734, when a third candidate stood, Chapple wrote to Newcastle that ‘Mr. Browne, who also stands again, hath given me assurances of his interest’.2 In 1741 and 1747 the Whig was Nathaniel Gundry, like Browne a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. On Browne’s death in 1750 his seat went to the Damers, who retained it for 40 years. At the same time Gundry was succeeded by John Pitt, a former Tory with a government post, who was invited to stand by ‘so large a number’ of independent voters ‘as could not be refused’.3

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 366, 412.
  • 2. 27 Mar. 1734, Add. 32689, f. 174.
  • 3. John Pitt to Hen. Pelham, 19 May 1750, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.