Cockermouth

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in burgage holders

Number of voters:

about 200

Population:

(1801): 2,865

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
3 July 1790JOHN ANSTRUTHER 
 JOHN BAYNES GARFORTH 
5 Aug. 1793 ANSTRUTHER re-elected after appointment to office 
7 June 1796JOHN BAYNES GARFORTH 
 EDWARD BURROW 
29 Dec. 1800 WALTER SPENCER STANHOPE vice Burrow, deceased 
8 July 1802ROBERT WARD 
 JAMES GRAHAM 
22 July 1805 GEORGE STEWART, Visct. Garlies, vice Graham, vacated his seat 
3 Nov. 1806JOHN LOWTHER 
 JAMES GRAHAM 
17 Jan. 1807 THOMAS HAMILTON, Lord Binning, vice Lowther, chose to sit for Cumberland 
16 May 1807JOHN LOWTHER 
 JAMES GRAHAM 
21 July 1807 JOHN OSBORN vice Lowther, chose to sit for Cumberland 
11 July 1808 WILLIAM LOWTHER, Visct. Lowther, vice Osborn, vacated his seat 
31 Jan. 1810 LOWTHER re-elected after appointment to office 
12 Oct. 1812WILLIAM LOWTHER, Visct. Lowther 
 JOHN LOWTHER 
23 Dec. 1812 AUGUSTUS JOHN FOSTER vice John Lowther, chose to sit for Cumberland 
27 Nov. 1813 THOMAS WALLACE vice Visct. Lowther, appointed to office 
1 Mar. 1816 JOHN HENRY LOWTHER vice Foster, vacated his seat 
6 Feb. 1818 WALLACE re-elected after appointment to office 
20 June 1818JOHN HENRY LOWTHER23
 JOHN BECKETT22
 Sir Frederick Fletcher Vane, Bt.2
 Hon. George Lamb1

Main Article

Cockermouth remained a pocket borough of the Lowther family until 1832. James, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, usually returned personal adherents, but when Sir William Lowther* succeeded to his electoral influence he frequently placed a seat at the disposal first of the Pittites and later of administration. Although the Earl of Egremont, as lord of the manor and a substantial local property owner, was well suited to contest control of the borough, he could not be induced to take an interest in its politics during this period. Nothing came of the report of an attempt to open the borough in December 1812 by Mr (probably Joseph) Hume*.1

The abortive challenge to the Lowther interest at the general election of 1818, inspired by Brougham’s anti-Lowther crusade in Westmorland and engineered by his brother James, gave ample proof of the futility of fighting a popular campaign in a constituency under tight local control. The unsuccessful Whig candidates meant to contest ‘the question of burgage’; and ‘it was their intention to have polled a good many householders that they might, in that view of the right of voting, have also a majority. But ... they could not get householders to poll for them—two at the utmost.’ No petition materialized.2

Author: J. M. Collinge

Notes

  • 1. Lonsdale mss, Lonsdale to Visct. Lowther, 12 Dec., Lowther to Lonsdale, 19 Dec. 1812.
  • 2. Carlisle mss, Lady to Ld. Morpeth [15 June], Ld. to Lady Morpeth [21 June], Lamb to Morpeth, 22 June, Howard to same, 3 July 1818; Wentworth Woodhouse mun. G1/14.