Hythe

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:

50-70

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
28 June 1715JACOB DES BOUVERIE26
 SIR SAMUEL LENNARD25
 John Boteler22
 William Brockman20
26 Mar. 1722SIR SAMUEL LENNARD 
 HERCULES BAKER 
 Julius Deedes 
22 Aug. 1727SIR SAMUEL LENNARD54
 HERCULES BAKER33
 Thomas Hales29
22 Feb. 1728WILLIAM GLANVILLE vice Lennard, deceased39
 James Brockman27
27 Apr. 1734WILLIAM GLANVILLE 
 HERCULES BAKER 
5 Apr. 1736BAKER re-elected after appointment to office 
1 July 1737GLANVILLE re-elected after appointment to office 
6 May 1741HERCULES BAKER 
 WILLIAM GLANVILLE 
3 Dec. 1744THOMAS HALES vice Baker, deceased 
27 June 1747WILLIAM GLANVILLE 
 THOMAS HALES 

Main Article

Hythe was controlled by the Duke of Dorset, lord warden of the Cinque Ports, who used the patronage of that office and of the Treasury to support his private interest.1 His son, the second Duke, wrote of Hythe to the Duke of Grafton in 1767:

My father for many years contested it while parties ran high, with the Tories of that place; he by degree established his interest in it, and the Whigs prevailed.2

The Tories in question were Sir Philip Boteler of Barham Court, M.P. Hythe 1690-1708, his brother, John Boteler, M.P. Hythe 1701-15, and his brother-in-law, Jacob des Bouverie, M.P. Hythe 1695-1700 and 1713-22. In 1715 Bouverie was re-elected after a contest, but John Boteler was ousted by a government candidate, Sir Samuel Lennard. Thereafter all Members returned were ministerialists, from 1728 without opposition. In the 2nd Lord Egmont's electoral survey, c.1749-50, Hythe is described as ‘in the Crown’.

Author: A. N. Newman

Notes

  • 1. Namier & Brooke, i. 447.
  • 2. Germain mss.