Essex

County

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

Background Information

Number of voters:

about 6,000

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
8 Feb. 1715SIR RICHARD CHILD 
 THOMAS MIDLETON 
 Robert Honywood 
 William Harvey 
31 May 1715WILLIAM HARVEY vice Midleton, deceased2541
 Robert Honywood2517
 HONYWOOD vice Harvey, on petition, 18 May 1716 
27 Mar. 1722WILLIAM HARVEY3061
 ROBERT HONYWOOD2993
 Richard Child, Visct. Castlemaine1758
5 Sept. 1727RICHARD CHILD, Visct. Castlemaine 
 SIR ROBERT ABDY 
8 May 1734SIR ROBERT ABDY3378
 THOMAS BRAMSTON3056
 John Tylney, Visct. Castlemaine2146
26 May 1741SIR ROBERT ABDY 
 THOMAS BRAMSTON 
14 July 1747SIR ROBERT ABDY 
 WILLIAM HARVEY 
13 Dec. 1748SIR JOHN ABDY vice Sir Robert Abdy, deceased 

Main Article

In the 1715 Parliament one seat was held by Sir Richard Child, later Lord Castlemaine, a Tory who went over to the Whigs, the other successively by two Whigs, Midleton and Honywood. From 1722 the representation was divided between a Whig and a Tory till 1734, when two Tories were returned after a contest with Castlemaine’s son, standing as a Whig. At the county meeting before the 1741 election Martin Bladen reported, 17 July 1740:

The Tories ... started their old Members, Abdy and Bramston, to which the Whigs demurred, in hopes of finding two others, to put up on the opposite side. But where to find them yet remains a difficulty.1

No Whig candidates materializing, two Tories were returned unopposed in 1741 and 1747.

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Add. 32694, f. 165.