Exeter

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 freeholders and freemen

Number of voters:

about 1,500

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
8 Feb. 1715JOHN BAMPFYLDE 
 FRANCIS DREWE 
27 Mar. 1722JOHN ROLLE887
 FRANCIS DREWE806
 Samuel Molyneux665
 Charles Stuart (Sturt)664
5 Sept. 1727FRANCIS DREWE 
 SAMUEL MOLYNEUX 
25 May 1728JOHN BELFIELD vice Molyneux, deceased 
7 May 1734JOHN KING746
 THOMAS BALLE703
 Upcot561
 John Belfield511
11 Mar. 1735SIR HENRY NORTHCOTE vice King, called to the Upper House 
26 May 1741SIR HENRY NORTHCOTE 
 HUMPHREY SYDENHAM 
20 Dec. 1743SIR RICHARD WARWICK BAMPFYLDE vice Northcote, deceased 
1 July 1747HUMPHREY SYDENHAM 
 JOHN TUCKFIELD 

Main Article

At Exeter candidates were put up by the corporation, a strongly high church body, who nominated local Tory gentlemen. Two Tories were returned unopposed in 1715, and after a contest in 1722; but in 1727 one seat had to be conceded to the Whigs, who in 1734 captured both seats. Before the next general election the corporation created 240 honorary freemen, ‘composed of the most zealous gentlemen, clergy, and attorneys of the Tory party’,1 a step which achieved its object of putting an end to all further Whig opposition.

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Sir Hen. Drake to Pelham, 16 Sept. 1753, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.