Orford

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 the freemen

Number of Qualified Electors:

no more than 20

Population:

(1801): 751

Elections

DateCandidate
21 June 1790FRANCIS SEYMOUR CONWAY, Visct. Beauchamp
 HON. WILLIAM SEYMOUR CONWAY
7 July 1794 LORD ROBERT SEYMOUR vice Beauchamp (Earl of Yarmouth), called to the Upper House
26 May 1796LORD ROBERT SEYMOUR
 HON. ROBERT STEWART
31 July 1797 FRANCIS CHARLES SEYMOUR CONWAY, Earl of Yarmouth, vice Stewart (Visct. Castlereagh), vacated his seat
7 July 1802LORD ROBERT SEYMOUR
 JAMES TRAIL
1 Nov. 1806LORD ROBERT SEYMOUR
 LORD HENRY SEYMOUR MOORE
6 May 1807LORD ROBERT SEYMOUR
 LORD HENRY SEYMOUR MOORE
27 July 1807 WILLIAM SLOANE vice Seymour, chose to sit for Carmarthenshire
22 Feb. 1808 MOORE re-elected after appointment to office
7 Oct. 1812CHARLES ARBUTHNOT
 EDMOND ALEXANDER MACNAGHTEN
24 Apr. 1813 MACNAGHTEN re-elected after appointment to office
18 June 1818EDMOND ALEXANDER MACNAGHTEN
 JOHN DOUGLAS
29 Mar. 1819 MACNAGHTEN re-elected after appointment to office

Main Article

At the election of 1768 Orford became a pocket borough of Francis Seymour Conway, 1st Earl of Hertford, created a marquess in 1793. He, and from 1794 his heir the 2nd Marquess, remained in unquestioned control throughout this period. The corporation of 12 and the eight portmen, if they chose to create them, were non-resident relatives and friends of the patron. The inhabitants had no say and elections passed ‘without trouble or expense’.1 The Hertfords returned members of the family or reliable friends as a rule, but in 1812 and 1818 the 2nd Marquess complimented his friend the Prince Regent with one seat and offered the other seat to government if they provided for MacNaghten, whom he had brought over from Antrim to accommodate his son there. Moreover, he had contemplated giving the premier Pitt a nomination in 1804, in preference to one of his nephews, had a vacancy arisen then,2 and in 1818 did not return his own heir.

Author: Winifred Stokes

Notes

  • 1. PP (1835), xxvi. 2510; Oldfield, Boroughs, ii. 534.
  • 2. Egerton 3260, f. 119.